


A Fair Gift

by CuriousxCrowley



Series: A Fair Gift 'Verse [1]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: M/M, Torchwood gets a baby, sort of domestic fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 06:48:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 31,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6970645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriousxCrowley/pseuds/CuriousxCrowley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Torchwood's newest rift gift is not something any of them had anticipated having to deal with. </p><p>Set after 2x01 but before 2x06 (probably towards the beginning of series 2)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Gift in the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Un-beta'd all mistakes are mine. I tried proof reading but if I missed stuff I apologize.

“Okay, but can someone tell me why it’s always raining?” Jack’s voice rang clearly through the comm system despite the torrential down pour happening around them.

“Because it’s Cardiff?” Gwen answered shortly. Ianto couldn’t help but grin at his fellow countrywoman as he pushed on through the poorly lit park in search of their most recent ‘rift gift’ as he’s taken to calling them. 

Owen’s disgruntled snort followed. “I’m from bloody London and it’s not this bad.”

It was Ianto’s turn to snort indignantly. “You forget I lived in London for years, Owen. I used to keep my work clothes at work instead of trying to arrive dry. It’s just the same.”

He’s not dry now, far from it actually, but then again no one else on the team is. Well except for Tosh who is warm and cozy back at the hub. The technician had been nursing a cold for the better part of a week before Owen had finally banned her from field work. This mean that Ianto had taken to spoiling his friend with the best teas he could get his hands on. This _also_ meant he was back in the field.

And in the field he was. Covered in it actually. There was probably more mud on Ianto than not as he swept through the park methodically. When he chanced a look up from the ground he could sometimes make out the torches of his teammates conducting their own searches.

“No, it’s not.” Owen snarled, “this is worse!”

“We can always blame the rift,” Jack answered playfully and Ianto could make out a dancing beam of light to his left. That would be Jack, animatedly talking with his hands despite the fact no one could see him.

“Yeah but is it the rifts fault?” Owen asked suddenly taking on a more serious tone.

“No!” Ianto and Gwen insisted simultaneously. Gwen’s soft chuckle matched Ianto’s grin.

“Oh shove it, Wales. How would you two know? You’ve both practically grown up on the thing surprised neither of you have mutated.” Owen grumbled back and to Ianto’s left he thinks he can make out the haphazard passes of the doctor’s light.

Jack chuckled warmly. “Well I don’t know about Gwen but I have question about how Ianto can-“

“Jack!” He’s cut off by four synchronized voices.

“Are you guys even looking?” Tosh asked in a way that reminded Ianto of a stern schoolmistress, he could practically see her peering firmly over her glasses at the blips of them on her computer screen.

“Sorry love,” Gwen placated, “It’s just miserable out here.”

“Have any of you seen anything?” Tosh asked a little softer, this time Ianto is able to hear the nasal quality brought on by her cold.

“Nope.” “Nothing.” “Unless you count mud.” The other three answered, their voices over lapping in Ianto’s ear.

He’s about to join their chorus of negatives when he finally hears something, or at least he thinks he hears something. It’s hard to make anything out through the driving rain with one ear obstructed by his comm. He pulls the offending tech from his ear and concentrates. He hears it again and rushes forward towards the sound. Part of him knows rushing forward alone is stupid but the sound is so familiar he can’t _not_ run towards it.

He emerges through the thick hedge that’s been left to grow wild in the less frequented section of the park and his heart skips several beats.

In front of him is a child, an infant… no, a toddler because she’s standing by the base of tree. He assumes she’s a she based off the pigtails jutting from either side of her head, they’re drooping from the rain and look as though she’s been worrying them. She’s human, or at the very least she looks human. She’s covered head to toe in mud and she’s wailing, mouth wide and eyes shut tight, but he can barely hear her over the rain. She’s terrified and Ianto’s heart pangs in sympathy.

Without more thought he rushes forward hastily pulling off his over coat and wrapping her in it. He notices now she’s clutching a blanket fiercely in her fists, it’s muddied like she’s been dragging it behind her but he can see spots of pink on it. He damns protocol and whisks her up into his arms, if she’s infected with anything he’s willing to risk it. She doesn’t seem to notice anything, still screaming into the storm and Ianto sends out a quick prayer to gods he doesn’t believe in that she won’t need Flat Holm.

Only now does he hear the booming of Jack’s voice echoing through the park, he sounds worried. Ianto realizes he’s still holding his comm in hand and hastily shoves it back in wincing as he fairly certain he’s jammed mud into his ear canal.

“Ianto if you don’t answer me in three seconds I’m dismissing you on grounds of insubordination.” Jack shouts directly into his ear and Ianto can actually hear it in stereo.

“You tried that once,” Ianto is unable to stop the quip as it tumbles past his lips. He gets sarcastic when stressed, a trait that got him smacked about the head more times than he could remember as a child. “I found something… _someone.”_ He adds as he shifts the girl around trying both to keep her away from the comm and comfort her.

“What?” Gwen this time.

“Ianto where are you?” Jack asks sternly.

Ianto finds the light to his left, “About twenty yards to your right through some bushes.” He then looks to his right and makes out the torchlight he thinks is Owen, “Owen I’m on your left.”

Jack comes crashing through the hedge and stops just under the tree taking in the scene in front of him. The girl’s screams are quieter now. Ianto’s not sure if that’s because she’s wearing herself out or he’s smothering her. With that thought in mind he loosens his grip just a little. “Ianto?” Jack asks, his tone somewhere between worried and annoyed.

“She’s human, Jack… or at least she looks it.” Ianto answered trying to shift her weight to show Jack. She’s having none of it and wails increase in pitch.

“Toshiko, I need you to look at missing persons for a…” Jack trailed off and raised a brow at Ianto in question.

“Caucasian female. I’d say three,” Ianto bounces her a little and rethinks his initial assessment, “No maybe two or even a little younger. Brown hair and…” He stops because he doesn’t think she’s opened her eyes at all.

“Oh god!” Gwen gasps as she and Owen come through on the other side, torches swinging wildly.

Owen instinctually steps forward meaning to take the child from Ianto, a complete professional in this moment, but he’s stopped by one of Jack’s hands on his chest. “No one, I mean no one,” he fixes a glance to Gwen, “else touch her until we’ve scanned her.”

Owen drops the kit he’s carrying, not minding the mud that splashes back on him. He pulls out the scanner and aims it at the writhing bundle beneath Ianto’s coat. “She’s covered in rift traces but other than that she’s human… no, wait it’s picking up something else.” Owen says and begins to fiddle with the instrument.

“What?” Jack presses and he takes a step towards Ianto.

“Rhinovirus.” Owen answers finally, “so either she or Ianto have a cold. Or hell at this point they both do.”

“Jack,” Tosh calls in causing them all to jump a little, “no child matching that description has gone missing recently.”

Gwen shakes her head, “No I wouldn’t think so, her face’d be all over the telly if she was missing from now.”

Jack claps his together in front him and considers things for a moment. “Alright we take her back to the hub, Owen runs more in depth tests.” He then closes the gap between he and Ianto and reaches out to take the girl.

The second the captain’s hands are on her though she begins to panic. Screaming and writhing so violently Ianto is half expecting pea soup to come flying out at any moment. Jack flounders a moment before thrusting her back into his arms, “Alright then she likes Ianto.”

The walk back to the SUV takes forever to Ianto who’s suddenly trying to navigate the slippery terrain with his center of gravity thrown off. Jack’s got a hand under his elbow steadying him the entire way. The girl is still screaming with everything she’s got but at least she’s stopped bucking wildly.

Gwen broke the silence first when the SUV came into sight. “Owen you have to do something for her.”

“Yeah like what? I’m not the bloody baby whisperer am I?” Owen snipes back, the cries clearly affecting him as well.

“No but you’re a doctor,” Ianto reminds him through gritted teeth.

Owen’s eyes light up suddenly and he races to the back of the SUV popping open the trunk. “Tosh, love.” He calls sweetly into the comm.

“Yes, Owen?” Ianto can hear her blushing.

Ianto keeps a steady grip on the girl as Owen talks Tosh through locating the proper dosage of sedative for something so small. The dose sounds ridiculously tiny even to his untrained ears and even in the doctor’s smallest needle it looks inconsequential.

Owen doesn’t even bother to find bare skin and sticks the needle straight through the girl’s clothes into her thigh. It’s not long before Ianto feels her go limp in his arms. The silence is deafening. “Right then, we need to get back now, I’m not comfortable with her being unmonitored with this sedative.” Owen nods as he closes up his med kit.

Jack drives, Gwen riding next to him with her body twisted so she can monitor the back seat. Ianto and Owen are in the back, the toddler laid out over Ianto’s knees but Owen’s got a tiny wrist held beneath his fingers as he monitors her pulse. Ianto doesn’t say anything but he distinctly hears the doctor murmur, “slow and steady, that’s a good girl” and “I’ll give you a hundred lollies if you wake up in a little.”

Once back at the hub Owen ushers Ianto, who’s still holding her wrapped in his coat, past a flustered Tosh and into autopsy. Ianto lays her on the table, making sure his coat is completely between her and the metal before Owen is frantically unzipping her pajamas and attaching monitors to her chest. He takes a step back and has to bite down on the nausea of seeing something so small and human laid out, unmoving, on the autopsy table. Only once the heart monitor begins beeping reassuringly he and the doctor let out the breaths they’ve been holding.

Ianto stands by the steps and lets Owen start his work. His stomach rolls again and he makes note to look into converting a few of the storage rooms near the vaults into a proper autopsy. It’s never bothered him before that Owen saves lives on the same table he autopsies caustic aliens on but it suddenly does.

“She’ll be out for a while; it’ll give me time to get some blood samples.” Owen says quietly. When he’s like this, completely professional, Ianto remembers why he’s never actually poisoned his coffee. “You should go get cleaned up.” He says looking up at Ianto, “You look like utter shit.” He tacks on hastily to recover his dour demeanor.

Ianto looks down and internally sighs at the state he’s in. Almost nothing he’s wearing is salvageable, maybe not even his shoes. As he bounds up the autopsy stairs he sees the state of Jack’s great coat and wants to cry, the entire bottom is caked with mud.

He’s stripped off his waist coat, button up and trousers and is considering the options in his locker. He’s got another suite but it’s past midnight and the denims and pull over are calling his name. He chooses them with the reasoning that he’s only got trainers to wear and a suite would just look ridiculous. He’s just grabbed his shoes when his locker door slams shut with force almost clipping his arm. Jumping a little he’s greeted by Jack standing a foot from him. He looks both irritated and pleased. Ianto wonders, not for the first time, how Jack can express such dueling emotions on a single face.

“Sir?” He asks laying his clothes out on the bench.

“What were you thinking?” Jack hissed from between his teeth.

Irritation it is then. “She’s a child, sir.”

“She could be carrying diseases that are capable of killing you in hours.” Jack continued as if Ianto hadn’t spoken at all. “It’s why we have a scan first policy. Diseases you’ve never even heard of could be dormant inside of her waiting to latch onto your underdeveloped immune system.”

Ianto is only half listening, it’s not that he’s trying to be disrespectful it’s just he knew this speech would come and had done it anyway. He’s also deciding whether a shower would be worth it. He chooses not to and begins to change, unaffected by Jack’s presence as he might once have been. Jack’s used to seeing him in far less these days.

“She’s a child, Jack. A soaked and terrified child, it was a risk I was willing to take.” Ianto says tiredly when he determines Jack’s diatribe has ceased and knows he’s expected to answer.

Jack stares him down for a moment before surging forward capturing his lips fiercely. “You, Ianto Jones, are such a kind hearted fool.” He says once he’s finally stepped back.

Maybe it’s because he’s in the bowels of the hub and maybe it’s because he’s exhausted but Ianto has to physically bite his tongue from snorting at Jack’s words. Just over a year ago, six floors down and a little to his right Jack had once held a gun to his head. He manages to keep down all his words about how much of a fool he was, is, and finishes changing. Jack watches all of his movements fondly but doesn’t even once try to grope at Ianto.

“What are you smiling about?” Jack asks once Ianto’s tied up his trainers.

Ianto hadn’t realized he’d been smiling. “Nothing, punchy… you know how I get when I’m tired.”

Jack did because there hadn’t been a night in almost two months that they’d slept apart. It wasn’t that they were living together, not really. Some nights Ianto slept in Jack’s bunker and other nights they slept together in Ianto’s flat. Even if Jack didn’t actually sleep they’d fallen into the routine of spending the night in the same place recently.

Jack nodded in agreement. “I still want Owen to run tests on you too, then you can get some sleep.”

Ianto hates needles, he wasn’t afraid of them, just hated being a human pin cushion. So he was more than glad for Owen to say he was done with his turn under the needle. “The scanner says you’re just fine, probably caught Tosh’s cold this week with all your mothering,” Owen said as he marked Ianto’s vial and placed it with the several he’d collected from the girl. Jack cleared his throat from above them and Ianto caught Owen’s eye roll, “but the blood test will confirm you haven’t caught space hep from the kid.”

‘The kid’ was still laying on the metal table, unconscious though her monitors all said good things. While he’d been changing someone, probably one of the girls, had replaced his jacket with a blanket and stripped her of her soaked clothes. She was covered by a second blanket pulled up tight around her neck.

“She’s so tiny,” Gwen exclaimed as she took the spot next to Jack, she too had changed from their outing.

“She’s got two year molars,” Owen announced taking his pen light and walking over to the toddler. “Small though, can’t imagine she’s much older than two. I’d say she falls somewhere between 18 months and two and a half. It’d be easier to narrow down if she woke and I could chart her development.”

“How’d you know?” Tosh asked coming around from behind Jack to lean on the rail, mug of tea in hand. She was looking at Ianto when she spoke. Suddenly four pairs of eyes were pinning Ianto to his chair.

It took him a moment to remember he’d guessed at the little girl’s age in the park. “I have a niece and nephew. Whenever my sister feels like I owe her some great debt she makes me babysit.” Ianto explained trying to keep his voice even. For some reason he’s never been comfortable speaking about his family to his coworkers.

Gwen laughed loudly, “I’m sorry, Ianto, but sometimes it’s hard to remember you’re not a pod person born in a suit.” Jack shoots a sideways glance at Gwen that both Ianto and Tosh catch. Tosh raises a brow and Ianto shakes his head almost imperceptibly.

“Owen is there anything you need for her?” Toshiko asks suddenly and maybe just a bit too loud, drawing Jack’s attention away from Gwen’s comment.

Ianto doesn’t blame Gwen. Sometimes, if he’s very busy or exceedingly drunk, he also forgets he has a family. He loves Rhiannon and adores the children, even if David’s been getting mouthy lately, and most of the time he can tolerate Johnny. The problem lies with the memories that stir with seeing Rhiannon. Memories he’d rather never let see the light of day again.

Owen turns around and considers the tiny form at Ianto’s side. “She’s wearing a nappy so we’ll need those. She’s definitely dehydrated but we see that often enough with rift victims, get a bottle and one of those trainer cups just in case. Oh and judging by her front teeth I’d pick up a couple dummies too.” Gwen blinks blankly at him and Owen sighs. “Her front teeth are tilted but she doesn’t have calluses on her fingers so she probably had a dummy addiction,” he explained in a tone typical of one speaking to a child.

Gwen nodded and then clapped her hands excitedly at the prospect of shopping, “Oh she’ll need clothing too!”

“Right,” Jack nodded, “Ianto go with Gwen… make sure she doesn’t blow our budget on our little friend there.”

“If it’s all the same to you, sir, I’d rather stay here with her.” Ianto said without thinking as he reached out to slip a finger into the fist of the girl. Even Gwen stops for a moment to cast Ianto a glance. Owen and Gwen are the ones who question Jack’s orders. Toshiko always quietly considers them before usually deciding Jack’s judgement is best. Since Abbadon Ianto hasn’t once questioned Jack’s orders, even to most mundane ones such as this.

“Alright then. Tosh go with, keep her in a budget and then have her drop you off at home. I don’t want to see you until noon tomorrow.” Jack agreed but didn’t bother taking his eyes off Ianto, one eye brow raised in question. Ianto shrugs in response turning his attention back to the child.

The two women take their leave, Tosh holding firm to the credit card, while Ianto pulled his chair closer to the table. Owen looks up from the monitor at the motion and shrugs, “if you want to play nurse I’m gunna go take a nap. Wake me if this changes even a little, I’m not taking sets off alarms, I’m saying if this doesn’t look exactly like this,” he jabs a pen at the screen, “you wake me.” Ianto nods, eyes flicking over all the numbers on the screen making sure to imprint them.

Ianto realizes Jack’s still standing above him when he hears boots scuffing the ground. “What’s gotten into you?” Jack asks leaning over the rail.

“Nothing, I don’t feel like getting soaked again and shopping with Gwen is one of the least appealing things I’ve been asked to do today,” Ianto replied tilting his head to look up at Jack.

Jack makes a humming noise and Ianto can’t tell if he’s being dismissed or agreed with. The captain’s eyes slide over him settling on the hand that’s still holding the child’s. “You ever think of kids?”

“No.” Ianto answers a little shocked at the question.

“Really? Not even with Lisa?” Jack pushed and it still takes a good measure of control to not flinch when he says her name.

“She didn’t want kids, said we would have killed a cactus for how much we were home.” Ianto says, leaving out the part where they actually did manage to kill a cactus.

“But you?” Jack asks. Ianto gives him his best puzzled face and Jack continues, “ _she_ didn’t want kids. What about you?”

Ianto shrugs. He doesn’t tell Jack about the high school girlfriend who he had gotten pregnant at sixteen. Her parent’s hadn’t liked him from the beginning, a delinquent from the estate her father had yelled when they’d told him, delivering a mean left hook to his jaw. He doesn’t mention that they’d moved away not even two weeks later and he’d never managed to get in contact with her ever again.

“You are an increasingly frustrating man, Ianto,” Jack said but his voice was fond. “Sometimes I think you know more about me than I know about you.”

“Not much to know, sir.” Jack’s laughter echoes through the room even after he turns and leaves.


	2. It's a Baby, Baby!

Ianto’s not sure when he fell asleep but his back pops audibly when he straights up in his seat. He’d remained by the little girl’s side all night only pulling away to put away the milk and apple juice Gwen had bought. He’d gathered up the child’s dirtied clothes on his way out and had decided to toss the pajamas but try to salvage the blanket. While he’d rinsed off the surface mud from her blanket he’d discovered a monogram. ‘TRC’ was stitched in lilac thread in one of the more soiled corners, visible only after some thorough scrubbing.

Owen was at his desk, pen tapping idly at his mouth as he looked over papers. A quick glance at his pocket watch tells Ianto its almost seven. “Do I have space hep?” He called over mid-stretch as he tried to work the knots from his muscles.

Owen turned slightly in his chair. “Nope, not even space herpes which is amazing considering Jack”

“Hey I heard that,” Jack thundered down carrying two cups of coffee from the shop down the street. He passed one to Ianto before dropping the other on Owen’s desk.

Ianto takes a sip and sighs happily. Jack’s learned there are exactly four shops in all of Cardiff that Ianto will accept coffee from and he’s careful to only buy from them. “How’s she?” Ianto asks.

Owen pinches the bridge of his nose. “Her initial tests came back normal. Other ones, like the DNA sequencer,” Ianto was fairly certain this machine was actually a piece of alien tech that Jack had happened to know how to work, “are going to take some time. All signs point to human though.”

“Anything extra in her initial results?” Jack asked resting a hand on top of the girl’s messy brown hair. Ianto makes a note to find a comb because she’s surely going to have knots. 

“No extra radiation, no odd minerals, just the standard rift energy.” Owen answered before crossing his arms. “Her sedation should have worn off hours ago but I assume she’s just tired. Am I to give her more?”

Jack sighed and pulled his hand to his face, he looked uncertain for a moment and it made Ianto feel uneasy. “No we need to see if there’s any… mental trauma.”

It’s half one when Tosh scurries in looking both guilty and better than she had during the night. Ianto had managed to drag himself from the toddler’s side after enduring the odd stare Owen was giving him at his insistence of being there with her. He was halfway to Tosh’s desk with a mug of tea when a wail took up from the direction of the medical bay. They both freeze. Jack’s office door swung open with a thud that made Ianto wince in sympathy for the frame.

“I’m guessing she’s awake.” Jack announced and rushed past the two of them.

Ianto hurriedly hands Tosh the mug before sprinting off towards the bowels of the hub. He’s got the newly cleaned blanket hanging in front of an electric heater by his desk. The archives are cool and not at all humid which is great for any artefacts but not necessarily in preventing the archivist from shivering all day, so he’d invested in a small heater. He’s pleased when he finds its dry and actually a little on the warm side. Despite the increasingly irate sounds coming from the other side of the main floor when he reaches it Ianto makes a stop at the small kitchen to grab the bottle of milk he’d poured out earlier in the morning. Just before he leaves he snatches a small bar of chocolate he’s hidden underneath some of the rarely used ‘extra’ mugs.

Chocolate once tamed Myfanwy.

When he returns to the medical bay Gwen is barely hanging onto the girl who’s howling and trying to pull away. The toddler gives a great shove with her body and it’s only because Gwen had enough sense to bend when it happened that she only fell about a foot. Owen’s standing by one of the stairs into the small room and Tosh is by the other, clearly blocking her escape, so instead of escaping she takes refuge behind the table. Jack’s standing against the railing watching it all with a face that’s somewhere between amused and disturbed.

“Tosh, if I may?” Ianto asked but stepped by her before she could answer.

Gwen blew a piece of her hair from in front of her face. “Have a go then, she wants nothing to do with us, poor thing is terrified.”

Ianto sat himself on the floor near the step closest to the toddler, even while screaming she’s watching him ready to bolt if he comes any closer. “Sweetheart,” he said softly but she doesn’t respond. “I’ve got your blanket. See?” He said a bit louder but no less soothing. This gets the little girls attention and she quiets just a bit. Ianto can see from the corner of his eye that Jack’s face has shifted wholly to amused.

“Here, blanket.” Ianto repeated and tossed the blanket halfway between the two of them. She considered it for some time, her cries having softened to whimpers and little hitches of breath. Slowly she scoots forward and everyone seems to be holding their breath. She stops as soon as she gets to the blanket but doesn’t crawl backwards once she’s got it. Ianto allows her to rub her face on the blanket for a moment before setting the bottle a foot in front of him. She sees it so he doesn’t bother with talking again.

Its five long minutes before she inches forward, dragging the blanket with her. As soon as she is within reach she snatches up the bottle and begins to greedily suck on it. He lets her get halfway through it before pulling out the chocolate and unwrapping it. As he breaks of a piece she immediately stops drinking and watches him from the corner of her eye, clearly recognizing the treat. He eats the piece before breaking another off and holding it out to her. She doesn’t hesitate this time and scrambles towards the offered sweet stuffing it into her mouth without actually extracting the bottle. It only takes three more tiny pieces of chocolate before she’s sitting in his lap eating her latest piece in between sips of the milk. 

“How did you do that?” Gwen asks though she’s been watching the whole thing.

Ianto shrugs and experimentally wraps an arm around the toddler, she doesn’t seem to notice. “I lured a pterodactyl into a warehouse once.”

Jack laughs and it’s softer than usual, obvious he’s not trying to startle the girl. “Did you just compare a child to a dinosaur?”

“They’re equally terrifying,” Ianto agrees with a nod. The other’s leave slowly, except Owen who’s at his desk with headphones in.

“TRC…” Ianto muses out loud to himself after Jack walks away. “Tina?” He asks the toddler not really expecting an answer but shakes his head immediately. “No… Tess?” No response. “Tara… no, definitely not.”

After a moment he pulls out his PDA and finds a baby name site. He begins to slowly list off all the T names. The little girl never responds quietly playing with her blanket, worrying it between her fingers.  An hour passes and he’s almost run out of names. He stops to think a moment; chances are if she was taken by the rift she was a local girl. “Tegan?” She turns her head just enough for him to consider it a response. “Tegan?” he repeats and she turns to look at him fully.

“Is that it then? You’re Tegan?” She continues to watch him as he speaks. He presses the button on his comm. “Gwen, I think her name might be Tegan.” Gwen’s been running her description through missing persons.

“Really? How’d you work that out?” Gwen’s voice filters into his ear.

“Her blanket is monogramed TRC so I just started guessing T names, she responded to that one so it’s probably close.” He explains.

It’s almost six and all but one member of Torchwood 3 is seated around the table in the boardroom. Ianto is the only one missing. Tegan had allowed him to get up but only if he continued to carry her with him, a singular attempt to set her on the ground had led to five minutes of screaming. She let Tosh and Jack hand her things or rub her back, Gwen had tried to touch her arm and Tegan had begun crying again. Owen wasn’t allowed within three feet, probably because he was the one who had stuck needles in her… unconscious or not at the time no one blamed her for it.

As it neared dinner time Ianto called out for pizza figuring most children liked the food and then disappeared up to the tourist office with Tegan on his hip.

“Where’s Ianto?” Owen moaned tossing his pen towards the ceiling. As if on cue the cog door rolled back and the alarm sounded. A few minutes later Ianto rounded the corner. Tegan was on one side, a white paper bag clenched between his teeth and he was balancing three pizza boxes in his other hand.

Tosh was the first out of her chair taking the pizza boxes. “You could have called one of the us!” She admonished but was smiling too widely to be taken seriously.

“Didn’t consider the logistics.” He says once he pulls the bag from between his teeth.

Gwen end up being the one to take over the job of passing out the plates and napkins. Ianto tucks a napkin into his own shirt before doing the same for Tegan who’s currently settle on his knee. After she stares at her pizza for a moment he cuts it up into smaller pieces, she eagerly begins to eat.

“Alright so what do we have?” Jack asks after watching Tegan eat for a moment.

“She’s human, Jack.” Owen says around a bite of his pizza. “Tests say she’s human. She’s actually got all the common twenty first century vaccines in her. So I’d say late 90’s to the near future as for when she’s from.”

“She’s not in any missing person cases for the last thirty years, I checked for the whole of the UK…” Gwen agrees, thankfully waiting until she was between bites.

“So we’ve got a seemingly healthy misplaced human toddler,” Jack muses looking over to Ianto, “Anything you have to add?”

“No, sir.” Ianto shakes his head before looking down at Tegan’s plate, her first slice is completely gone so he prepares a second for her.

“So what now?” Tosh asks finally speaking up.

“I think we should hand her over to the proper authorities.” Owen answers before Jack can speak.

“But what if she goes missing next week? Wouldn’t that be odd if she’s been in the system for a full week before she goes missing?” Gwen asks sitting up slightly.

Owen shrugs, “she’s a baby, Gwen. Exactly what are we going to do? We can’t hold onto her forever like the weevils.”

Gwen looks put out but turns to Jack. “What are we going to do with her Jack?”

“Gwen’s right. It wouldn’t play out well for the parents if she’s been in care for two weeks before they report her missing,” Jack muses. “But Owen’s also right we can’t just lock her up. This is a human child.” He laces his fingers together and rests them behind his head obviously thinking.

“Damned if you do…” Ianto mutters looking down at the top of Tegan’s head.

“Damned if you don’t.” Jack agrees looking over at him. “Four weeks,” he says finally. “We keep her in Torchwood custody for four weeks. At the end if she doesn’t go missing she’ll need to be taken out of the city at least to be placed.”

Owen and Gwen actually look surprised but Tosh looks thoughtful. “Where are you going to keep her then?” She asks quietly.

“Not in the cells, no that would be worse than torture,” Jack agrees.

Gwen leans forward now. “I could take her home,” she volunteers.

“Yeah and what exactly will you be telling Rhys?” Owen asks.

“Owen’s right.” Jack says, agreeing with the medic for the second time in the last twenty minutes. “I have somewhere I could take her.”

Ianto sits up straighter one arm snaking protectively around Tegan’s waist. Flat Holm, in his opinion, was a worse place to stick her than the cells. “Jack, surely not-“ he’s cut off by a sharp look from Jack.

“No, a friend. She’s a nurse in a nearby hospital,” Jack says slowly. “She knows enough to not question and she’d keep her at her home.” He stresses the word ‘home’ heavily and Ianto nods. They finish eating in silence, only Tegan’s loud chewing brakes it and even Ianto smiles at it.

Ianto stands, Tegan on his hip, and starts to clear away the plates. He’s stopped by Tosh’s hand on his shoulder. “Ianto, why don’t you let me hold her for a while.” She says softly.

“Alright then.” He begins to pull Tegan from him and she lets out a warning whimper. “Now now, cariad, you’ll be fine,” he says in a soothing voice to her. He manages to get her into Tosh’s arms with only a few more whimpers but once there Tegan settles. She watches Ianto intently, tiny head following wherever he’s going.

Emboldened by her acceptance of someone else Ianto heads to the door to make coffee, something he hadn’t been brave enough to do with Tegan physically attached to him. He gets two steps out the door before the wailing begins, this time it’s different though. This time Tegan’s actually speaking.

“No, no!” She screams arching her back against Tosh who’s trying to keep her from falling off her lap. “No, no! I wan’ daddy. I wan’ daddy.” She screams just as clearly.

Ianto stops and turns, he finds Tegan clearly reaching for him as she yells. He’s a bit taken aback by her sudden gifting of titles. He had only ever referred to himself as Ianto in front of her. He nods at Tosh who lets her go. Tegan slides boneless to the floor, she lays there for a moment before standing. She runs, or Ianto assumes she’s running as he walks fast than that, to him and clings around his leg.

“I-“ He begins to say when he realizes everyone is watching him again he shuts his mouth.

“Right so I have a suggestion to make.” Owen is the first to speak up, “tea boy. Any particular desire to go out into the field for the next month?”

Ianto shakes his head and slowly begins to unwind Tegan from his leg. “Not particularly.”

Owen turns to Jack now. “So as a physician, and yes I did my pediatrics rounds as well as anyone else, I’m suggestion that the kids obviously bonded and if you take her to your friend it’s likely she’ll be so traumatized she won’t bond again as quickly.”

“You’re suggesting I take her?” Ianto asks skeptically.

“She called you daddy, Ianto,” Gwen agrees from Owen’s side. “I’ve seen it with kids when I was a cop. They bond with the first one on the scene and then when it’s time to hand them over to family services it makes for a hellish adjustment period, it’s why we try to have child services on the scene for any domestics involving children.”

Ianto looks at Jack who’s back is still to him. He can’t read anything like this. “Sir?” He asks finally.

Jack turns his chair, hands still folded. “How do you feel about it Ianto?”

Ianto looks down at Tegan who he’s managed to reduce to only one arm around his leg. She’s quiet again. He definitely doesn’t like it when she screams and if what Owen and Gwen are saying is true (and he doesn’t doubt them) she’d probably spend the next month screaming at whoever Jack was planning to hand her off to. “Alright then, I guess I can care for her,” he says.

Jack nods and there’s now a small smile on his lips. “Go home then, she’s probably getting tired.”

“Sir, where exactly am I going to put her?” Ianto asks suddenly remembering he’s got nothing and nowhere for her.

“He also needs a safety seat, Jack” Gwen reminds, “he can’t just toss her in the backseat.”

Ianto ends up at the store with Gwen wandering through the slightly terrifying baby section. He’d sat in the back of his car holding Tegan while Gwen drove them. Tegan had allowed him to place her in the trolley as long as he was the one pushing.

They end up in shoes first trying to decide Tegan’s size. Gwen insists on a pair of baby pink trainers while Ianto makes sure to grab a pair of black patent mary janes. Gwen drags him through the health and beauty section. She throws in little pink brushes, hundreds of tiny rubber bands, and a thing of baby wash. Ianto is the one to pick the safety seat and Gwen approves his final purchase though she laments he should have picked something more colorful than the black and grey he’d choosen.

They’re picking up another pack of nappies and wipes when Tegan sits up and excitedly points around Ianto. “Mimi!” She cries and it takes Ianto a minute before he spots the small Minnie Mouse plush that had gotten her attention, that too ends up going home with them. They add a few more items of clothing, none of which are any shade of pink because Ianto refuses any more of that particular color. Gwen gets another trolley and loads it with a travel cot, a stroller, a few small fuzzy blankets and some other items he wasn’t sure they’d actually need.

The boot of his car is packed full and he’s increasingly glad this is going on Torchwood’s expenses. Gwen tries to install the car seat but in the end Ianto, having had previous experience with the devil contraptions though his sister’s children, ends up being the one to get everything secured tightly. Tegan falls asleep on the ride back to his flat clutching her new Minnie doll in one hand and her blanket in the other.

Gwen stays with him for a while after they get to his flat. She laughs and pats his shoulder reassuringly when he awkwardly begins to give Tegan a bath. While he was doing that she sat in the living room fussing over the strange contraption that was a travel cot. She gets it together by the time he’s combing out Tegan’s hair.

There’s a strange nook created by a bay window in the corner of his living room by his bedroom wall, he’d never managed to find furniture that fit there but the cot slides into the space perfectly and Ianto remembers to pull the drapes shut tightly.

It’s almost ten thirty by the time Tegan is asleep, he’d given in and given her one of the dummies and she’d been out ten minutes later, and Gwen is gone. Ianto feels like he’s more exhausted than he should be considering he hasn’t done much at all today. He showers. only turning off the water three times to check and make sure Tegan’s still sleeping, and settles into his own pajamas before slipping into bed.

He’s in that twilight space between being awake and asleep when the click of his lock cuts through the fog. Ianto groans inwardly but drags himself out of bed, gun in hand, and goes back out into the living room. It takes him a second to realize the figure standing by his door is Jack, the great coat giving it away.

“Bloody hell, Jack.” Ianto hisses as he slides the safety back on his gun.

Jack smiles and in the dark it might even be apologetically. “Sorry,” he whispers and pulls his coat off, “didn’t think either of you would be awake.”

Ianto jerks his head towards the kitchen. There’s not much separation between the two rooms but it’s enough they shouldn’t bother Tegan. Jack follows him.

“Coffee?” Ianto yawns. A year ago he would have tried to stifle it behind his hand in front of Jack, now he finds he no longer cares.

Jack grabs hold of his hand and shakes his head, “the rift is quiet and I honestly was just planning to come curl up behind you.”

Ianto nods. “Alright then, but I’m tell you I’m too exhausted for anything else.”

Jack snorts a little louder and Ianto cuts him a dirty glare. “Sorry, bed?”

Ianto falls asleep seconds after they crawl into the bed with Jack curled up behind him.


	3. It's a Learning Curve

Ianto wakes alone in the morning, one glance at his clock tells him why. It’s almost nine and he was only just waking up. Cursing under his breath he sits up and spots a note laying in front of his alarm.

_You are both exhausted. Take your time coming in, there’s no rush.  
CJH_

Ianto forgets, if only for a second, about Tegan sleeping just behind the wall and is very confused by the note. When he remembers he jumps out of the bed and looks around the corner. Tegan’s still sound asleep and somehow her tiny body has taken up every inch of the cot. He lets out a sigh of relief before turning back around and starts getting dressed.

He’s just tied his tie when Tegan begins sniffling from the other room. Ianto grabs his jacket as he steps out into the living room, he decides against putting it on until after he’s gotten Tegan ready.

He’s silently thankful to Rhiannon for asking (forcing) him to watch her children because he’s not completely lost as to what to do. He gets Tegan changed and dressed with minimal disaster. He manages to comb her hair into some form of order but tucks the hair elastics into a bag for Gwen or Tosh to use once he gets to work. He sticks a few of the smaller toys Gwen had purchased in as well.

He’s lucky there’s some good orange juice in the refrigerator but a quick search for food leaves him deciding they’ll stop for a muffin on the way in. One glance at the stroller, still tucked up in the box, and he decides they’ll drive.

It’s almost ten when he finally gets to the hub. Tegan without saying a word had somehow sweet talked the girl at the bakery into a chocolate chip muffin the size of her head despite the fact that Ianto was only trying to order a smaller blueberry muffin for her. She’d walked, one hand in Ianto’s, during their trip into the bake shop but he’d decided to carrying her around the hub. There’s no one in the main section so Ianto heads towards the conference room figuring he can at least keep Tegan mostly clean if she eats there.

He finds the rest of the team in the room, he glances at the screen and after deeming it not mentally scarring he continues in.

Owen’s the first one to see them, clearly not paying attention to what he’s supposed to. He fixes Ianto with a self-satisfied smirk.

“Glad you could finally make it in,” Owen says dryly.

Everyone else turns to look at him. Ianto can’t help but feel he hasn’t had this much attention on him since after he returned from ‘leave’ after Lisa. It’s extremely unnerving.

“I told him to take his time because of our little guest,” Jack says and ducks his head to playfully wave at Tegan. Ianto is thrilled when she graces him with a half-smile.

He sets her down and begins pulling her jacket off, which takes practice since she refused to let go of the blanket completely. Once he’s got it off Gwen and Tosh both let out small “aw” noises and Ianto looks up to find them both staring at Tegan _and_ him as opposed to just Tegan. He glances down with a frown as he realizes what he’s done.

He’s wearing one of his black suits with the maroon colored shirt Jack loves. Tegan is wearing a similarly colored dress, clearly picked out by Tosh during their first trip out, and black tights. The leather of their shoes shine back accusingly at him even though he knows no one else has seen that yet. “I didn’t do it intentionally,” He defends himself as he sits next to Tegan. Pulling out the muffin her eyes light up. She reaches for it but Ianto shakes his head before cutting into quarters, only giving her a piece.

Ianto only half listens to the meeting, not much pertains to him anyway, watching Tegan eat the muffin and yet somehow spread crumbs all over the table. After the meeting, and cleaning up the table, Tosh follows him down to the archives carrying Tegan’s bag. Opening the door he frowns when he realizes he not sure what to do with her.

Tosh seeing his frown looks around, “hold on I’ve got an idea!” She drops the bag at his feet before hurrying out the door. She returns a few minutes later holding what he immediately recognizes as a force field generator, Jack and Owen called it a portable fence apparently having used it to herd some sort of alien livestock around before Ianto joined up. “It’s perfectly safe,” She assures as she sets it up in the corner behind his desk, which he slides closer to the door to give her more room.

Once she’s done there’s a three foot blue (why is it always blue?) semi opaque force field coming out from the wall a few feet before taking a ninety degree turn and hitting the other wall. Ianto wonders what Jack will think of them using extraterrestrial technology to create a play pen. He then shrugs figuring he’ll buy a slightly more terrestrial version later if it’s an issue. He thanks Tosh profusely before placing Tegan and her toys inside the makeshift play yard.

Tegan takes a moment, examining her space before turning her attention to the wall. Ianto smiles broadly when she discovers it’s solid. She hangs her weight on it and pouts a little before moving on to examine the metal pieces of the machine. Unable to figure out how to deactivate them she finally turns to her toys.

She plays quietly with them and Ianto is surprised to find he’s able to work with her in the background. It’s almost noon when he notices she’s yawning. He’d forgotten about naps. A quick trip to the laundry, Tegan walking behind him this time, and he grabs some of the extra blankets meant for Jack’s room. He gives in with the dummy again, Rhiannon had made him promise never to give Mica one again after she’d been a year and a half but Tegan is a different case. She’s asleep within minutes, her blanket covering her top half.

With the toddler asleep Ianto feels more comfortable walking into the rows and actually putting away some of the objects. Tegan’s been asleep for over an hour when his stomach begins to protest not eating anything more than a muffin for breakfast. He’d forgotten to go up and order lunch, he wasn’t _that_ comfortable leaving the girl.

“Gwen,” Ianto says in a low voice turned away from his desk in an effort not to wake Tegan.

“What do you need, love?” Gwen asks after a moment.

“Have you ordered lunch?”

“Yep, Chinese. Jack placed the order and said he’d gotten something for Tegan as well.”

“Thank you and be sure to thank him for me,” Ianto said pleased they’d managed to survive without him for a few hours, even remembering to feed themselves.

Tegan wakes before the food arrives and after a quick change and some juice, Ianto had thought ahead and stored some in the cooler he kept behind the desk, she’s happily coloring a blank paper with one of his pens. He keeps an eye on her making sure she doesn’t put an eye out with it.

“Putting her to work I see,” Jack calls from the door way. Ianto notes the way he eyes the alien play yard.

“Figured she was old enough to learn how to write memos,” Ianto grins and leans up into the kiss Jack gives him.

“Lunch,” Jack says and deposits a few cartons on the desk in front of him. Ianto doesn’t try to hide the cringe as he’s placed them directly on his paper work. Jack strides past the desk and leans over the gate. “Can I see you today or are you and Ianto only kind of gal?” He asks Tegan and holds out his arms.

By some miracle Tegan eyes him warily before extending her arms up to him. Ianto’s not sure if it’s because she’s warming up to the others or if it’s the mere fact Jack is offering her freedom from her baby jail. Jack happily scoops her up before sliding a chair to the desk. “I’ve already eaten so I figured I could help her eat while you have lunch.” Jack says and settles Tegan on his lap.

Lunch goes easily and Ianto more time watching Jack and Tegan than he does actually eating. Tegan is clearly not immune to the Harkness charm and manages a giggle for Jack during some of his more bizarre antics. He knows Jack has children. Knows all about Lucia Moretti and their daughter Melissa turned Alice Carter. He’s also not stupid and for as long as Jack’s been alive he doesn’t doubt there are probably more out there. He doesn’t say anything though because while he knows, Jack wasn’t the one to tell him.

After lunch is over Jack disappears back upstairs and Tegan resumes playing. Ianto is making some desperately needed headway through forms and files when he finds himself smiling at Tegan’s chattering. It’s a shock when he stops and realizes that she’s actually chattering. She’d been almost mute save for the few instances and the rather surprising outburst the day previous when she’d called him daddy. He doesn’t understand half of what she’s saying but she’s clearly chatting to her Minnie doll and pretending to feed it. He allows himself a few minutes of watching before turning back to work.

“Ianto,” Jack’s voice calls for him and shakes him from his filing trance.

“Yes?” Ianto answers.

“It’s almost five why don’t you take Tegan. Might be good if she gets to bed before midnight.” Jack says rationally and Ianto pulls his watch out to check, yes it’s actually almost five.

Ianto is relieved to find he’s not the only one leaving when he and Tegan get to the main level. He makes a quick stop at the grocery store realizing it’s not healthy for adults to live on take away it’s certainly not healthy for a toddler. By the time he gets back to his flat the SUV is parked on the corner and there’s a light on in his window. Jack’s already boiling water with a box of pasta sitting next to the stove. Ianto eyes the tomato sauce warily remembering the state of Tegan’s muffin from this morning.

“All kids love spaghetti,” Jack insists not even turning to face him.

Tegan doesn’t actually make as horrific of a mess as Ianto had expected. Jack teased him several times throughout the meal about his anxiety over how she was eating. Despite the fact that his flat was still intact Tegan was covered head to toe (literally, how did she get pasta sauce on her foot?) in red sauce. Ianto bathed her and was greeted with a remarkably clean kitchen and table when they came out.

Tegan had fallen asleep around nine and Jack was curled almost innocently around Ianto as he laid on his side in the bed reading. Normally they would have just left the hub and would only just be eating dinner. “What’s the possibility she’ll go missing in the next four weeks?” Ianto asks suddenly and turns in the bed to look at Jack.

“It’s not impossible but…” Jack trails off.

“But it’s not likely,” Ianto finishes for him. “You had to give Gwen something or she’d have fought you for days,” he concluded after a moment.

“Yes.” Jack agrees. “There’s only so long we can hold out hope. Even if she goes missing during this lifetime we can’t really return a seven year old to a family expecting a two year old. It just wouldn’t end well.”

Ianto nods and presses a soft kiss to Jacks lips, “you don’t have to explain it to me. I get it.”

Jack presses his lips back against Ianto’s and pulls him closer with the hand around his back. Ianto melts into the kiss with a soft sigh. Their lips chase each other and their tongues tumble in a seemingly endless kiss. It’s only when Jack’s hand slips lower down Ianto’s back to grab for his arse that Ianto pulls his head back just enough to break the kiss.

“Jack,” he warns and shoots a look over Jack’s shoulder at the door to the living.

Jack smiles, “I promise to be quiet.”

Ianto pulls his lip between his teeth worrying it for a moment as he considers the offer. “Fine just try not to scar her any more than she probably is.”

Jack lets out a chuckle but it’s little more than a soft puff of air against Ianto’s lips. Ianto chases the air back and they’re back to where they left off, including Jack’s hand kneading at his arse. Ianto slides his own arms around Jack and pulls him until they’re flush against each other. They’re slow and easy tonight, maybe because Ianto isn’t concerned about how few hours he has until he has to wake up.

Tegan wakes crying what feels like minutes after Ianto drifts off to sleep. He barely wakes when Jack rubs his back and whispers, “I’ll take care of it.”


	4. What's a Weekend?

The next nine days pass in much the same fashion. Tegan slowly warms up to the rest of the team, even allowing Owen to give her a checkup without too many tears. They stop at the bake shop every morning and every morning without fail the girl behind the counter packs them up a chocolate chip muffin despite Ianto’s protests, Owen usually eats the half Ianto wont feed Tegan. She spends the rest of the morning in the archives with Ianto and by the third day Jack produces a camping pad to lay her on for naps. In the afternoons she gets restless and they take turns entertaining her which leads Ianto to finding out she’s not in the least bit scared of Myfanwy. In fact, when Myfanwy swoops down close enough for Tegan to see she laughs and points to her and yells “ROAR” at the top of her lungs. Ianto is surprised to find Jack winds up back in his flat every night, sometimes it’s only to crawl in bed with him for two hours, other nights they leave at the same time.

“I was thinking,” Jack says to him that Friday as Ianto is cleaning the hub. Tegan is perched on Jack’s lap as they sit at Gwen’s now abandoned station.

“I hope it didn’t hurt too badly,” Ianto answers back blandly.

Jack growls and playfully snaps his teeth in his direction. “I was thinking all indicators point to a quiet rift tomorrow. We could spend a day away from here, it’d be good for Tegan.”

Ianto looks over his shoulder with an eyebrow raised. “You mean take a weekend on the actual weekend? Are you well?”

“You’ve never seemed to want to, you always seem to wind up here even when the others are off,” Jack shrugs.

“Never had a reason. The rift isn’t always quiet on a weekend and you’re here so…” Ianto trails off as he picks up a mug from Owen’s dest and seems disturbed by the contents.

Jack nods, “well now you do. Tegan can’t spend the next almost three weeks down here.”

“You said ‘we’” Ianto remarks and it’s almost quiet enough for Jack to miss.

“I figured I’d come with… make sure you two stay out of trouble,” Jack reassures him.

The next morning dawns and it’s shaping to be a relatively mild day for April. Ianto dresses Tegan while Jack attempts to assemble the stroller. Among a stream of curses, most of them in languages even Ianto doesn’t know, he lets slip more than a few things Ianto is sure he hadn’t meant to. “Diu! In thirty years they haven’t made these things any easier,” he mutters under his breath at one point. Eventually it does come together and Jack has a smug look on his face that Ianto is used to seeing after he’s out smarted a global threat.

“Ah my brave hero,” He says blandly as he sees the stroller finally in one piece.

They walk to the bake shop, more out of autopilot for Ianto than anything else.

“You two are late today!” The girl, Felicity, exclaims when they walk in.

Ianto chuckles and Tegan lights up already anticipating her muffin. “Yes, trying out this weekend thing.”

Felicity nods, “that is always a good choice. One large coffee, two sugars and one cream.” She says as she sets about making it.

“You’re brilliant,” Ianto sighs as he watches Felicity make his coffee with a similar face to Tegan’s.

“She seems nice,” Jack whispers conspiratorially in Ianto’s ear.

“She’s here every morning when we come through,” Ianto whispers back.

“Oh, Ianto, I have something for you two!” Felicity exclaims as she places the coffee on the counter. She disappears for a moment before coming forward with a tray of dozens of mini muffins. “You’re always complaining her muffins are too big so I did something about it.” She smiles brightly at Ianto.

“You’re still going to give her too much though,” Ianto says in a voice that’s too put upon to be serious.

“She’s just the cutest!” Felicity agrees and places ten of the muffins into a bag. “Your bagel is being warmed.”

Jack clears his throat and Felicity nearly jumps out of her skin.

“Oh I’m so sorry, sir, I didn’t see you there. What can I get for you?” She asks quickly.

“I’ll just have a large black coffee,” Jack says with a bright smile which Felicity doesn’t return. Ianto notices he almost pouts when she’s got her back turned.

She returns with the coffee and Ianto’s bagel. “Will that be separate or… together?”

“Together,” Jack answers quickly before throwing money onto the counter. He says it in a tone that Ianto is a little confused by. Once they’re out the door Jack turns to Ianto and smiles, “she likes you.”

“She’s very nice, yes.” Ianto agrees as he hands Tegan one of the mini muffins.

“No, Ianto, she’s flirting with you,” Jack restates.

Ianto looks up a little surprised, “what?”

“Kids… they’re almost as good as puppies,” Jack says sliding his hands into his pocket as they begin to walk.

“She did give me her number,” Ianto says slowly as if he’s just realizing something.

Jack laughs full bodied, “planning on using it?”

Ianto shakes his head. “No, I’ve only started going there with Tegan because I can stop when her four weeks are up.”

They end up walking to the park Ianto recalls having seen a playground with a smaller section meant for toddlers at. He wonders if he should be at all concerned because it had been during a weevil hunt that’d he’d even become aware of this park.

“Play!” Tegan squeals as soon as they can see the playground.

Ianto nods and stops the stroller. “Yep, playground.” He leans down and unbuckles her before setting her onto play area.

Jack assumes a seat at the bench and for a moment Ianto is torn between joining him and following Tegan. After a few moments of a mental image barrage of Tegan falling and splitting her head open on one of the metal bars he follows her. Helicopter parent. That’s the term Rhiannon had used to describe the parents who hovered around their children always keeping them from danger. He wasn’t worried about scraped knees, that was part of growing up. He was worried about a lack of risk assessment leading to concussions or broken bones, he’d also had plenty of those growing up.

Ianto assumes a middle ground leisurely following Tegan as she scrambles around the play structure. She’s wearing the hideous pink trainers Gwen had chosen and those are easy enough to track. They play peek-a-boo through one of the tunnels and Ianto catches Jack watching them, the look on the older man’s face is almost nostalgic. Tegan gets adventurous and wanders to the larger structure, Ianto almost pulls her back but decides to let her. There are a few older children here but they let her play without much fuss.

It’s the third time he’s caught her jumping off the side in ten minutes that Ianto decides it’s time to move on. He carries her to Jack and more or less drops her in his lap. “She’s yet to find out that flying is not on the agenda for the human race.” He says by way of explanation.

“You never tried to fly?” Jack asks and proceeds to pick Tegan up by her middle and wiggle her around while making ‘whooshing’ noises.

“Of course I did. Five though, my best mate Tyler’s garage, jumped off the top.” Ianto admits remembering that day. “Compound fracture of my left arm quickly dispelled those notions.” His mother had been having a good day that day and he remembers the look of worry she kept flashing him as she drove him to the A&E. His father hadn’t notice for days even though Ianto was sporting a neon orange cast.

Jack laughs. “I was… four. No maybe younger. There were these sand dunes that went nine-ten feet tall. Luckily for me sand is a lot softer than pavement, I only dislocated my shoulder. An easy and quick fix.” He’s got a faraway look on his face and Ianto wonders, not for the first time, what Jack had been like as a child.

Ianto hands Tegan another muffin and she eats it while he stands and Jack holds her. A woman takes a seat on the other side of the bench. She smiles warmly at Ianto when he glances over her.

“She’s gorgeous,” The woman coos at Tegan who ducks her head against Jack.

“Thank you,” Ianto agrees for lack of a better thing to say.

“My two,” The woman continues and gestures vaguely to the playground, “were absolute nightmares at that age.”

Ianto looks and Jack silently pleading for him to save him from small talk. Ianto can do witty banter, sarcastic remarks, and deep soulful conversation what he cannot do though is small talk.

The woman seems not to notice the look and continues. “Not so bad now that I can send them off to school but they’ll wreck the house if I keep them home on weekends. She your first?” She asks taking another chance to wave at Tegan, who once again ducks into Jack.

“Yes,” Jack answers smoothly while Ianto images what the woman’s face would like if they told her the truth.

“I can tell, she’s obviously very well loved,” The woman beams but Ianto can hear ‘spoiled’ in the way she says it.

Jack manages to extracted Tegan from his side and buckles her into her the stroller. “Thank you,” he says politely but the look on his face tells Ianto he heard the same implication under it.

“Well I hope you have a lovely day but we best be off,” Ianto says politely as Jack stands and grabs hold of the stroller.

“To you and your husband as well,” she returns brightly.

Jack’s hand is suddenly at Ianto’s back shoving him forward as Ianto makes a choking noise deep in his throat. When they’re finally out of earshot Ianto turns and fixes him with a glare. “I _hate_ people,” he hisses.

Jack chuckles and makes a point of grabbing Ianto’s hand as they walk. Ianto attempts to shake off his hand three times before giving up and allowing them to hold hands as they walk.

They’re passing a field where a group of middle aged men is attempting to play rugby when a familiar voice calls out. “Christ, Jack? Ianto?” Turning they find Gwen sitting under a tree with several bridal magazines spread around her.

“Gwen what are you doing out here?” Jack asks with a brilliant smile.

“Rhys is out there. He’s going to throw out his back and then lie on the sofa all evening moaning about the pain. It’s lovely and we try to do it about once a month.” Gwen says standing and brushing off her jeans. “I was beginning to wonder if you two knew what sunlight is,” she teases before ruffling Tegan’s hair.

Ianto sighs and immediately reaches forward and smooths out Tegan’s mussed hair. Gwen makes and ‘o’ with her lips and looks at Jack. “How’s the wedding planning?” Ianto asks ignoring the look.

“It’s a nightmare!” Gwen exclaims throwing her arms up. “Rhys’ mum has all sorts of nightmare ideas.”

Jack laughs, “I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“You’ve no idea what she’s like Jack, wait until you meet her.” Gwen sighs exaggeratedly as she unbuckles Tegan and lifts her out.

“Meet her?” Jack asks looking confused.

“Well you and Ianto are coming aren’t you?” Gwen ask as she makes her eyes impossibly larger and more pleading. “Tell them Tegan. Say ‘Jack and Ianto need to come to auntie Gwen’s wedding or she’ll cry’”

Jack chuckles nervously, “we’ll try Gwen but aliens and all.”

“Oh no, no aliens on the day of my wedding. The rift bloody well know hell hath no fury like a woman on her wedding day.” Gwen says before nuzzling her nose against Tegan’s.

Ianto laughs because really the only person who could probably lash out against an interdimensional rip in space and time would be Gwen Cooper. “I will make sure to send a memo out to the rift.”

“Oi, who’s this then.” Rhys calls out as he approaches, sweaty and covered in dirt. Gwen doesn’t seem to notice and leans in to give him a kiss.

“This is Tegan…” Gwen says and turns to look at Ianto with an eyebrow raised.

“My niece.” Ianto finishes for her quickly.

“Ah family duties then. Can’t escape them.” Rhys agrees before turning to look at Jack. “What are you doing here then?” He asks unable to hide his dislike.

“Rhys,” Gwen starts and moves between him and Jack. “Ianto and Jack are together,” she says placing a hand on her fiancé’s chest.

“Oh?” Rhys asks and then what she’s saying dawns on him, “oh. I didn’t know you were gay.” he says as he turns to Ianto.

Ianto flinches just a little at the label, “it’s not exactly on my business card,” he mumbles.

“Alright well we better get going,” Jack says before taking Tegan from Gwen.

Ianto nods, “nap time and all.”

As they walk away Ianto can hear Rhys and Gwen discussing his apparent ‘gayness’ and sighs.

“Does it bother you?” Jack asks softly, also aware of the conversation behind them.

Ianto shrugs as he pushes the empty stroller. “Not really because I know Rhys means no harm in it…”

“But other people aren’t the same?” Jack fills in the silence.

Ianto nods in agreement. “Yes, I was fifteen when the bombing of the Admiral Duncan happened. I was with another boy when it happened, he was so afraid he broke it off with me. I was bothered enough by it I intentionally started dating a girl less than two months later.”

 “I’d forgotten about that,” Jack says softly.

They walk the rest of the way back to Ianto’s flat in silence, Tegan asleep on Jack’s shoulder. After laying her in her cot they make their way into Ianto’s bedroom. Ianto pulls out his laptop and begins work while Jack sits back and watches with a soft expression over his features. Ianto is comfortable in the quiet and occasionally bumps his foot against Jack’s shin.

His mobile begins to ring suddenly and he fumbles with the phone, answering it just to get it to stop ringing.

“Ianto,” He says into the speaker.

“So you’re not dead then,” Rhiannon barks through the phone. Ianto cringes wishing he had looked at the number first.

“Unfortunately no, still very much alive,” he answers and Jack makes a face.

“Well you won’t be much longer if you don’t come out and see us, I’ll make sure of that.”

“Rhi I’m-“

“So help me, Ianto Colwyn Jones, if the next word out of your mouth is busy I will drive my arse to your flat and kick you ‘til you’re good and bloody are we clear?” Rhiannon cuts him off shouting so loudly he actually has to pull the phone from his ear.

Ianto sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose. “Rhi…” he pleads.

“Don’t you ‘Rhi’ me. I haven’t seen you since before Christmas, I doubt Mica even knows who you are anymore. It’s her fifth birthday Ianto, she adores you.” Rhiannon softens her tone now. “Just come out tomorrow eat lunch with us and you can go on pretending you’re better than us for another few months.”

“Oh come on that’s not fair!” Ianto shouts only then remembering Tegan he cringes. “I can’t just drop everything and come running out there anytime you’re mad at me.”

“I’m not mad, disappointed.” Rhiannon argues back. “Imagine what mum-“

“Don’t you dare bring her into this, Rhi, that’s low even for you.” Ianto hisses through clenched teeth into the phone.

“Who else am I supposed to bring into it then? It’s you and me, Ianto, that’s all anymore and you won’t listen to me so I’m going to damn well bring in ghosts.”

Ianto sighs.

“You coming or what?” Rhiannon asks after a moment of silence on her end.

“Rhi, it’s just not a good time right now,” Ianto begins trying to explain.

“Never is, is it?” With that she hangs up.

Ianto sighs and puts the phone on the bed. Jack reaches forward and places a hand on his shoulder. “Why don’t you go visit her more?” Jack asks softly. “Even Owen visits his mother once a month.”

“First of all she’s not my mother. Second I have work.” Ianto sighs and turns back to continue working.

“Ianto I’m still technically your boss, I know exactly what your contract reads and you _don’t_ work every hour of every day.” Jack says and reaches forward to take Ianto’s computer from him. “Hell you shouldn’t even be doing this outside of the hub.”

“Unless you want Helen and the rest of the nurses to get pissed I was currently doing payroll,” Ianto says sharply trying to get the computer back.

“Why don’t you go visit her more? The real answer this time,” Jack says but his tone is stern and he holds the computer out of reach.

“I left when I was seventeen, I had no intentions of coming back. The only reason I did come back was because between Torchwood two and three I knew I had a better chance with three,” Ianto says and grabs again for the computer.

“Then why’d you stay after that was all over?” Jack asks.

“Because you didn’t put a bullet in my head,” Ianto admits. “I don’t hold retcon and the only other way out was with a bullet. I generally enjoy being alive.”

Jack smiles almost painfully, “sometimes I think you’re still mentally in London.”

“Right,” Ianto says skeptically. “Because after all of that if I had said ‘I’m fucking done with Torchwood’ you would have let me walk away with my memories?” He’s aware he’s treading new ground. They haven’t really talked about Lisa or Ianto’s betrayal of sneaking her into the hub.

“Yes!” Jack insists shutting the laptop and placing it on the nightstand. “I’m not, nor have I ever been Torchwood One.”

“But you’re still Torchwood Jack. Did you know I was Yvonne Hartman’s PA?” Ianto asks suddenly.

Jack looks a little taken aback. “You were? But I thought you were a junior archivist in London.”

“Yeah I may have taken liberties with my personnel file before coming to Cardiff.” Ianto shrugs. “Junior archivist were the lowest of the low, I did start there in the beginning but if you’re a junior archivist for more than six months you’ve done something wrong. The idea is to take the bright but unremarkable, if they die no problem they’re easily replaced. Of the nine others I was hired with five died in various artefact accidents.”

“So you’re not an archivist?” Jack asks looking confused.

“Of course I am,” Ianto replies indignantly. “That’s not the point though. The point is part of the duty as her PA involved cleaning up after she _disposed_ of errant employees.”

“Disposed.” Jack says swallowing audibly.

“We were all trained to overcome retcon. For weeks we’d randomly be dosed and if we didn’t show up at work the next day they would let us go, at least I think they were allowed to leave. I overcame a two year dose in less than twenty minutes by the end of it. But that posed a problem since every employee from the ground up was resistant.”

“There was only one way out of Torchwood then,” Jack says after a moment.

“You either failed the retcon tests or you died, leaving Torchwood wasn’t an option. You’ve never asked why I’m so good at faking deaths.” Ianto states quietly.

“I honestly took that for granted,” Jack agrees.

“So after spending all that time cleaning up after Yvonne’s messes do you honestly think I believe there’s a way out of Torchwood for me that isn’t in the morgue?” Ianto explains finally.

“So you think this is a death sentence.” It’s not a question but a statement.

Ianto answers anyway. “I knew from the moment I signed that contract in London it was. But it’s not a bad one as far as death sentences go, there are perks.”

Jack leans forward and grabs Ianto by the side of the face. Ianto thinks for a moment Jack’s going to kiss him but he stops a few inches from his face. “Ianto, if you look at me and say ‘Jack I want to leave Torchwood’ I will let you walk away.” His face is deadly serious.

“I don’t want to leave, Jack,” Ianto reassures and he closes the space between their faces.

Jack’s a twisted mix of unhurried and frantic as he begins to peel Ianto’s clothes off of him. One moment he’s slowly popping the buttons on Ianto’s trousers making sure to brush the edge of his hand over his cock, the very next he’s pulling Ianto’s shirt off so quickly they get tangled in it. By the time Ianto’s completely naked his head is spinning with how fast Jack is bouncing from one extreme to the other.

Jack’s got one leg wedged between Ianto’s thighs and his face is plastered to his neck trailing bruising kisses and bites all around it. The frantic pattern is making Ianto’s pulse race and in not a good way. He works one arm from beneath Jack and reaches up gripping the older man’s hair he pulls back. “Jack, calm down.” He tries to make his voice as soothing as possible.

“You’re not a prisoner, Ianto,” Jack whispers dropping his head back into Ianto’s neck. “You’ve never been prisoner, not with me.”

Ianto takes the moment of calm and deftly flips them so he’s lying over Jack. “I’ve never believed I was, cariad, never.”

He takes his time undressing Jack. Sitting back on his knees he allows an amused smile to touch his lips as he undoes Jack’s belt and bracers. For a man who spends as much time as possible naked he works hard to keep his clothes on. Once those are undone he carefully undoes the fly of Jack’s trousers, taking care to not touch his cock even a little. He leaves those on and methodically undoes the buttons on the blue shirt. Only once he’s gotten everything unfastened does Ianto begin to remove articles of clothing. First the shirts, pressing kisses to Jack’s chest as he pushes up the white undershirt. Then his trousers and shorts, once again deliberately not touching him more than entirely necessary.

Once Jack’s completely naked, erection standing proudly, Ianto leans down and presses a trail of butterfly soft kisses from Jack’s navel to the base of his cock. Jack moans softly and twitches his fingers against the comforter, clearly at war with himself and the urge to touch. Ianto presses a kiss to the tip of his cock and immediately a bead of precome wells up in the slit. Lightning fast he flicks his tongue out and catches the drop pulling it into his mouth.

“You’re teasing,” Jack growls finally.

“I thought you liked teasing, _sir_.” Ianto says, hot breath hitting Jack’s cock as he speaks.

Jack’s hips roll just enough beneath Ianto’s hands and he smiles. Finally, he leans down and pull Jack into his mouth. He remembers the first time he blew Jack. Despite years of being out of practice with another man he’d picked it up like riding a proverbial bike, albeit a very adult bike. Jack’s very sensitive at the tip and Ianto knows that if he wants the first round (because Jack’s always good for several rounds) to last more than a minute to only graze there in passing. That’s not what he wants now, he needs to calm Jack down so that he’ll be able to get anything out of this. He stays shallow giving him room to trace his tongue along the underside of the head while he gently rolls Jack’s balls in his hand.

Jack’s keening quietly overhead, hands still clenching at the comforter. Ianto plays dirty for a moment and pulls back just enough to flick his tongue quickly over the tip for a few seconds. Jack’s hips start rolling in silent pleading for more. Ianto gives in, just as he always does, and takes his cock back into his mouth. In a few short minutes one of Jack’s hands weaves its way into Ianto’s short hair and a few rolls of his hips he’s coming down the back of Ianto’s throat with a muffled cry.

Ianto places a soft kiss to the tip. Jack groans and pulls him up by his shoulders into a searing kiss. He’s rolled back onto his back and Jack’s much calmer now as he sucks kisses down Ianto’s neck and towards his naval. He’ll still have a trail of bruises in the morning but at least Jack’s found a pace and is sticking with it.

A dry finger presses into him and Ianto groans in protest. Jack pulls back with an apologetic smile though it’s something he does enough that Ianto no longer buys the apologies. Jack leans over and fetches the lube from inside his nightstand before beginning to thoroughly work him open, one finger and then two. Ianto doesn’t really need prepped given that they’ve been shagging daily for the past two weeks but Jack has a thing sometimes about being inside Ianto in as many different ways as possible. His fingers press expertly into Ianto’s prostate drawing a moan from him. Jack also likes that, bringing him undone while he can watch.

 As Jack switches to press his once again hard cock into Ianto he brings up his hand (the unlubed one for which Ianto is grateful) and pull’s Ianto’s face to his for a kiss. There’s something to be said for the way Ianto feels when Jack’s inside him completely. Ianto doesn’t care. Doesn’t care that his lover is a time displaced immortal who once buggard off without so much as a ‘by your leave’. Doesn’t care that there is an equally time displaced toddler sleeping ten feet away outside his bedroom wall. Doesn’t care that his sister probably hates him now and it’ll take an act of god to restore her favor to him. Ianto just doesn’t care and it is breath taking.

Jack’s thrusts are slow and calculated, the tip of his cock clipping Ianto’s prostate with every thrust. Ianto rolls his hips in response, letting out breathy pants. Jack shoves his hand away from his cock and begins stroking him in time with his thrusts. Jack has more stamina on his second wind but Ianto does not and it takes only a few moments before he’s coming between them. Jack’s determined though and continues thrusting and stroking, apparently eager to milk Ianto for all he’s worth.

Jack’s hips pick up speed signaling he’s ready to come for a second time. His hand though continues it’s slow and steady working of Ianto’s cock. With one solid thrust of Jack’s hips Ianto comes dry as Jack spills inside of him.

They lay panting and sated next to one another for a while. Ianto works hard to ignore the fact that he’s covered and filled with lube and come desperately chasing after a nap. He’s dozing lightly when he hears Tegan begin to move around outside his room. He groans and reaches over Jack into the still open nightstand drawer. Pulling out a pack of wipes he drops them onto Jack’s chest, “You deal with her. I need a shower.

After Ianto’s shower he comes out to find Jack and Tegan in the kitchen blowing bubbles into milk glasses with straws. Tegan’s giggling so hard Jack has one hand around her to keep her up right. Ianto ignores the mess in favor of watching them play. After a few moments he clears his throat. Tegan’s the one to look up at him with a dazzling smile and Ianto returns it with one of his own.

After cleaning up the milk mess they take Tegan for another walk stopping into a few shops as they go. Tegan ends the trip with a pack of crayons, two coloring books, three children’s books, two new stuffed animals and a hair bow about the size of her face that’s covered in rhinestones all courtesy of Jack’s wallet. Jack fixes her hair up with the bow and carries her back to the flat while Ianto pushes the stroller full of goods behind them.

They have breaded chicken and pasta for dinner. Ianto learns Tegan does not like chicken, at least for tonight, instead she eats both her and his helping of pasta. After dinner, Jack offers to clean up, Ianto reads her “Brown Bear Brown Bear” on the sofa. She can identify every animal by name or sound at least but gets the colors wrong most of the time. Ianto figures she’s still pretty bright for her age. She falls asleep on his lap after Jack joins them. Ianto just sits and holds her for a little, while Jack plays with his wrist strap.

After tucking her in, they both silently change and climb into bed. Ianto’s shocked to realize there’s a dull ache in his chest when he thinks about the fact that in a little more than two weeks she’s going to be leaving. Jack pulls him closer and it helps sooth the ache.

“Don’t think I haven’t notice,” Jack whispers into his hair.

“Noticed what?” Ianto asks sleepily.

“That you redirected me from asking about why you won’t visit your sister.” Jack says.

Ianto groans and buries his face into Jack’s chest. “It’s awkward and uncomfortable being back there, we lived less than a mile away growing up. Many of the same people I grew up with are still there and I’m not the same person I was when I was fifteen.”

“She’s your sister,” Jack reminds him.

“Family isn’t the be all end all, Jack.” Ianto says before rolling onto his side.

“No but it counts for something,” Jack follows him onto his own side. “Call her, apologize. Tell her you can come visit next Saturday. It’ll make her happy and give you time to adjust to the idea.”

Ianto groans before sighing. “What about Tegan?”

“I can take care of her alone for a few hours,” Jack says but notices Ianto tensing just a little, “Or we can all go and you can tell them she’s my niece this time.”

“You do realize you’d be meeting my family.” Ianto says quietly.

“Yes… we just talked about how she’s your family.” Jack agrees.

Ianto rolls back over so he’s facing Jack. “No, Jack, you’d be _meeting_ my family.”

“Oh,” Jack says realizing what Ianto’s getting at. Meeting Jack’s family is obviously out of the question, Ianto isn’t even supposed to know about Alice but meeting Ianto’s sister is akin to finally introducing one’s partner to their parents.

“Exactly,” Ianto agrees.

“We can still all go. I’d like that,” Jack says after a few moments of silence.

Ianto’s a little surprised, he had been intentionally giving Jack and out. “Jack, what will I say? ‘Hey, Rhi, this is my boss and his niece don’t question why they’ve come with me.’”

Jack snorts. “Or you could say ‘this is my boyfriend and his niece’ there’d be less questions.”

“And you’d be okay with that? Labels and all?” Ianto asks disbelievingly.

Jack nods, “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I wasn’t.”

“Alright, then I’ll call her tomorrow.” Ianto agrees.

“Alright then, good.” Jack says and pulls Ianto to him.


	5. Let's Meet the Family

Before anyone can do anything the next morning they’re lured to the hub with reports of a group of ‘college students’ playing pranks in the city center. Jack doesn’t think the report of damage matches the description of college students.

Jack’s right, of course.

The ‘students’ turn out to be Nsomis, a race of lilac skinned pyrokentic aliens. Jack says that, aside from a few unintentional fires, they’re a peaceful race and that this group is a crew of explorers that are investigating this side of the Milky Way Galaxy. The team spends most of the morning finding all seven of the crew members. Ianto stays back at the Hub with Tegan coordinating his team’s movements from Tosh’s work station. Tegan plays happily at the couch; seemingly unaware she’s turned a secret alien organization into her own personal playground.

After the successful round up, and dousing of flames, Jack brings the aliens back to the hub but not to the cells.

“We’re hailing them a ride home.” Jack announces when Ianto raises a brow as they enter.

Tosh kicks him from her station and begins working on sending a message out to where Jack thinks there should be a larger ship that will take their missing back. Despite Jack’s assurances that they’re harmless Ianto isn’t too keen on the idea of leaving Tegan around the aliens. Already while they’ve been talking one of the aliens, a female Ianto assumes if excess tissue on the chest for their race indicates the same as it does for humans, has taken great interest in watching Tegan coloring at the coffee table.

It takes the rest of the day before receiving a response from the Nsomis base ship. It’s nearly 4 in the morning when the crew is finally teleported from Earth. Tegan is safely tucked away asleep in Jack’s bunk during these final happenings, Ianto sitting at the desk above.

“Interesting day,” Ianto notes quietly when Jack finds him after the departure of their guests.

“Could have been worse, they could have wound up at a petrol station,” Jack says with a smile before peering down the manhole into his bunk. “She doesn’t seem bothered.”

“She’s two.” Ianto reminds as he stands, stretching.

“She’s very resilient,” Jack agrees looking up.

Ianto looks down, Tegan’s face is just barely visible from beneath the blanket she’s curled up in. “She fell through a crack in time and space, let’s just count our blessings that she is so resilient.”

“It is a blessing.” Jack says before looking up at Ianto. “Get some sleep it’s almost been 24 hours for you.” Ianto doesn’t argue but instead crawls down into the bunker. Only bothering to take off his shoes he curls around Tegan’s sleeping form and quickly passes out.

Ianto is barely able to call Rhiannon and schedule his visit before all hell breaks loose throughout Cardiff. He doesn’t tell her about Jack precisely just warns that he may bring a guest when he comes. No sooner does he ring off with her does the rift alarm starts blaring and for the next four days it goes almost nonstop. Two attempted invasions, four peaceful but confused ‘visitors’, at least twenty rift artefacts (eleven of which are dangerous, Jack dies seven times), and an untold number of weevil visits.

The only reason they manage to keep Tegan clean and well fed is by Ianto begging the team to stop at his flat and grab various items. Tegan doesn’t seem to mind, though by Thursday afternoon she’s metaphorically bouncing off the walls. Despite Jack (and Ianto) telling her to sleep Gwen takes pity on Ianto’s frazzled nerves and takes Tegan up to the plass, allowing her to run off some energy up above. Ianto watches on the CCTV as he tries to write memos on the numerous reports he’s going to need to file about this week.

“When it rains it pours,” Jack exclaims as he emerges from the lower levels. He’s attempting to towel dry his hair, his last death had been rather messy and Ianto had noticed there was still blood adhered to his scalp after the first shower.

“I’m exhausted.” Ianto agrees but instantly feels guilty because he hasn’t actually left the hub. Tosh is curled up in the ready room and Owen has passed out on the sofa.

Jack must see the guilt on his face because he clamps a hand on Ianto’s shoulder. “You have every right. We’ve been running you ragged between all of your normal work and Tegan.” Jack leans in to watch the monitor. Tegan is running up the plass holding her blanket out behind her, the wind is catching it almost like a kite.

“We need more people,” Ianto mutters to himself but of course Jack hears and stiffens.

“Ianto.” It’s a warning.

“I’m not saying you hire 800 people, I’m suggesting three or four more. There’s a stack of CVs in the bottom drawer of your filing cabinet you’ve been ignoring since before I started here.” Ianto says turning in his seat.

“We don’t need more people.” Jack snaps before turning and stalking into his office.

Ianto sighs and drops his head into his hands. He allows himself to wallow in the stubbornness of his boss for just a moment before standing and heading off to the kitchen. He returns to Jack’s office with a cup of coffee in hand. “We do.” Is all he says when he places the cup on Jack’s desk.

Jack looks up at him for a moment but doesn’t say anything. Taking the lack of argument as a good thing Ianto presses on. “Jack, Gwen’s getting married in a few months and you can tell her to keep hold of her life outside of Torchwood until you’re blue in the face but it’s not fair because you’ve not actually been allowing her to do that. Tosh’s contract is up in October,” Jack looks up at him sharply but Ianto continues, “I’m not saying she’ll leave but she deserves a life. That’s why you rescued her isn’t it? To save her life? And Owen is a brilliant doctor… if you tell him I said that I’ll lock you in the cells with Janet… but he’s going to make mistakes: careless, preventable mistakes if you don’t allow him the proper rest time. You might not need sleep but the rest of us, living on three hours on a lumpy couch is downright dangerous.”

Jack sighs before running his hand through his still damp hair, “and you?”

Ianto shrugs. “We’ve been through this and it’s not important-“

Jack slams his fist on the desk, his lamp wobbles precariously on the edge until Ianto pushes it back on. “Damnit, Ianto, it’s important because _you’re_ important.

“That’s not the point, sir,” Ianto says before sitting on the edge of the desk, “none of us have seen the inside of our flats since Sunday morning and it’s almost dinner time on Thursday. I know it’s not like this all the time, god knows there are days I’m so bored I’ve contemplated giving Myfanwy a bath…”

“I don’t know if she’d been too receptive of that.” Jack laughs softly.

Ianto frowns a moment before shrugging. “No probably not. But on the weeks where it is like this? A few more people would make a world a difference.”

Jack crosses his arms over his chest but he looks more contemplative than angry. Ianto decides it’s best not to push the issue too hard and stands. Persuading Jack is a very complex process full of knowing when to back off and when to push him harder, doing either at the wrong time ends in total failure. Ianto is just outside the office when Jack calls out. “Ianto, if we hired on more help exactly what would you do with the free time?”

Ianto pauses and looks over his shoulder. “Well there are all those dates you keep promising me.” Jack’s laughter follows him out into the hub.

In the end it’s not until Friday evening that the universe seems to take pity on Torchwood 3. Ianto notes that of course it would quiet down just in time to leave him with no option but to go visit his sister. He’s not in the least bit amused with the universe’s sense of humor. Jack doesn’t follow him back to the flat and for the first time in an unexpectedly long time Ianto is forced to fall asleep on his own.

He spends most of Saturday morning slowly packing for their trip out to see his sister. He’s becoming rather accustomed to having to remember nappies and sippy cups and that bloody stuffed Minnie doll Tegan cries without. He’s just wasting time hoping that if he wastes just enough time a global emergency will sweep him and demand he stay in the city.

He dresses Tegan in her maroon dress and black leather shoes before he bribes her with candy to sit on the counter while he pulls her hair up. Jack was much better at doing her hair and making it look neat but he had greatly improved in the past two weeks considering he’d never done another person’s hair before. He puts her in two pigtails just like the night he’d first found her in the park and clips in two black bows.

Ianto dresses himself while Tegan watches some almost painful children’s program. He’s wearing jeans today because anything more will earn him hundreds of comments about how he thinks he’s ‘posh’ now. He does make sure to dig out the navy sweater his sister had sent him for Christmas, it didn’t hurt to try and butter Rhiannon up.

He’s just about to give up on Jack remembering he’d agreed to come with when his door opens. Peaking his head into the halls sure enough Jack is standing there by the door. “I thought you’d forgotten,” Ianto admits stepping towards Jack and pressing a chaste kiss to his lips.

“Sorry I was taking care of somethings,” Jack says with a rueful smile. He’s barely stepped past Ianto when Tegan bounds off the couch and wraps herself around his leg. “Well I’ll never say no to that kind of greeting,” Jack exclaims and lifts Tegan up to him.

Ianto drives more because he needs something to do than the fact that he knows where they’re going. Visiting his sister always fries Ianto’s nerves. It’s not just visiting his sister that does it but the fact that she always finds that one topic Ianto doesn’t want to talk about and forces him into it. Jack easily picks up on Ianto’s nerves and begins to tell stories as they drive. Jack is perfectly comfortable talking without expecting anyone to answer and his voice is soothing to Ianto. It’s small talk that isn’t small talk.

The estate looks the same as the first time Ianto saw it and the last time and probably the same way it will look in thirty years. He wonders if there are council estates or the equivalent in the 51st century. Before they climb out of the car Ianto makes sure there are no weapons stashed in the glove box. It’s not a flashy car by any means but the kids in the estate have sticky fingers and his personal car wouldn’t be too hard to steal, the last thing he needs to do is give them weapons though.

“I think I’m going to be ill,” he mumbles to himself before leading Jack up the walk to his sister’s door.

Barely has his hand on the bell when it wrenches open revealing Rhiannon who’s clearly trying to play cool. “Oh lord is the world ending,” She breaths and swings open the screen door.

“Not today. We did set this up you remember,” Ianto says and leans into the hug she’s wrapped him in.

“Yeah well you actually coming is a different thing,” Rhiannon leans around Ianto peering at Jack, “Hello then.” She says with a large smile.

“Hi, Jack Harkness,” Jack says and shifts Tegan’s weight around so he can offer Rhiannon a hand.

“And this is Tegan, Jack’s niece he’s watching her this weekend.” Ianto explains gesturing to the toddler sized lump in Jack’s arms.

“Rhiannon Davis but I reckon you know that,” Rhiannon says as she shakes Jack’s hand, she gives Ianto a meaningful look.

“Are we going to be standing out here all day?” Ianto asks with one eyebrow raised.

Rhiannon steps aside, “Don’t you get cocky with me Ianto Jones.” She ushers them into the living room where David is seated on the couch playing on the Xbox Ianto had gifted him two years ago for Christmas.

“David, come say hi to your uncle.” Rhiannon calls and David doesn’t so much as budge. “David!” her voice is booming and Ianto remembers their father’s voice sounded the same when he yelled.

David lifts a hand from the controller and waves. “‘Lo,” he calls never turning his eyes.

Ianto snorts before leaning over the couch. “What is it then? Oh Halo? Two or three?”

“Three, Won it off Mark down the street in a bike race.” David says finally turning his head.

“Nice where are you?” Ianto asks training his eyes onto the screen. Rhiannon rolls her eyes behind him.

“Don’t encourage him. Bad enough you bought him the bloody box but then you have to go and give him those nasty alien games.” Rhiannon chastises before grabbing Ianto’s shoulder and pulling him up. “Next time maybe something a little less violent?”

“Oh of course, next time I’ll be sure to get him Bioshock… no aliens there.” Ianto says with a wicked grin Jack knows means he’s up to something. David’s head whips around.

“Really? Alun has that and it’s brilliant.” David exclaims excitedly.

“You’re supposed to be a good example, Ianto.” Rhiannon sighs heavily. “Stay here I’ll find, Mica.”

As soon as her back’s turned Ianto slides a ten from his wallet and hands it to David, “I’ll get you Bioshock and COD for next time I come up,” he mock whispers and David nods excitedly.

“Now why do I feel like that’s not something your sister will like?” Jack asks with a soft chuckle.

Ianto smiles. “She won’t, remind me to show you my Xbox sometime.” With that Rhiannon shows up a miniature version of her in tow.

“Mica!” Ianto exclaims and lifts the girl with a little spin, she giggles.

“She’ll get sick all over you if you keep that up.” Rhiannon warns but she’s busy sizing Jack up.

“Who’s that,” Mica asks looking at Jack curiously.

“That’s Jack and this,” Ianto begins before setting Mica down and pulling Tegan from Jack’s arms, “This is Tegan.”

Mica smiles up at Tegan. “She’s so cute!” Tegan looks over Ianto’s arm and down at Mica with an evaluating expression on her face.

“Yes, I think so too.” Jack agrees, still not having moved from his spot.

“Does Tegan like to color?” Rhiannon asks but without waiting for Jack to answer she produces two coloring pads and a pack of crayons from on top of the refrigerator.

“Yes,” Jack nods.

“Mica why don’t you take Tegan over there to color,” Rhiannon asks pointing towards the other side of the sofa.

Ianto bites his lower lip and carefully set Tegan on the floor. Mica snatches the coloring items from her mother before grabbing Tegan’s hand and half dragging her across the room. Tegan surprisingly doesn’t fuss about being torn away.

“Tea?” Rhiannon asks before gesturing to the table.

Ianto nods and grabs Jack’s arm dragging him over. Ianto sits at the end just so he can see around the couch where Mica is laying out the coloring pads. Jack sits next to him.

“So how do you two know each other?” Rhiannon asks as she sets the cups down in front of them. She’s obviously trying hard for casual but she’d never really mastered the art of subtlety growing up.

Ianto inhales deeply, “Jack is my boyfriend,” but he says it so quickly it comes out as one word.

Rhiannon hears it clearly though. “Oh I knew it!” She sounds a little too excited. “All those times I was trying to set you up with my friends, I knew it!”

“Or maybe it’s the fact that all your friends are crazy with half a dozen kids and psychotic exes.” Ianto says dryly before taking a sip of his tea.

“That was one girl! And it’s not Cara’s fault Tim’s a little jealous.” Rhiannon defends.

“He nearly broke my arm in the middle of a restaurant, Rhi! A little jealous is the understatement of the century,” Ianto says.

“But you were with Lisa forever,” Rhiannon comments and she raises and eyebrow. Jack can immediately see the family resemblance past just the dark features and pale skin.

“And I loved Lisa,” Ianto says quietly.

“I wasn’t doubting that sweetie,” Rhiannon says and pats the back of his hand. “So what you’re bi then? Always were a greedy one you were.”

Ianto wishes the rift came out this far. “He’s certainly not greedy,” Jack interrupts suddenly.

Rhiannon snorts, again in the same way Ianto does. “Clearly didn’t know him as a kid then. So how did you two meet?”

“Work.” Jack and Ianto say at the same time.

Rhiannon nods with a sudden solemn look on her face. “Office romances never work, you know?”

“Wow it’s taken you less than five minutes to doom my relationship, new record Rhi, thank you for that.” Ianto snaps

“Oh come off it Ianto. I’m not dooming it, stop being so dramatic.” Rhiannon says rolling her eyes. She turns to Jack and plasters a sweet smile on her face. “So she’s your niece?”

“Yes. I forgot I was meant to watch her when Ianto made plans to come up here, I hope it’s not a bother.” Jack says and offers his own charming smile.

“Oh not even a little! Mica is just the little mommy, she loves looking after the little ones.” Rhiannon insists.

They manage the rest of the afternoon in relative peace. Ianto is impressed by Jack’s ability to not only keep his stories child friendly but entirely believable as well. He’s very good at tailoring stories down for the uninformed crowd and tells a few stories about work that have been edited. Tegan quickly becomes Mica’s little shadow and willingly follows her up to her room to play with toys, Ianto only goes upstairs twice to check on them. When Johnny gets home, and claps Ianto’s shoulder hard enough he slides into the wall, Jack manages to not flirt with him even once and Johnny only makes two completely inappropriate gay jokes during the visit.

Still, Ianto is happy to be climbing into the car on at the end of the evening. He lets Jack drive home and Tegan is asleep almost as soon as the engine turns over. Ianto is dozing in the passenger seat when Jack starts talking again. “It wasn’t the worst visit in the world… right?” He actually sounds unsure of himself.

“No, actually it was quiet pleasant. Normally we spend forty minutes arguing over why I won’t go on a date with one of her friends.” Ianto agrees sleepily.

“I’ve notice something about the two of you,” Jack muses after a while.

Ianto peeks one eye open and looks over a Jack. “And that is?”

“You both avoid stories about your childhood but when you do tell them they’re always about you and her. What about your parents?” Jack asks and he dares to glance over at Ianto.

Ianto sighs, breath fogging up the glass on the window. “There’s nothing to tell.”

Jack presses his lips into a thin line. “You always claim you don’t know anything about me and yet you won’t tell me a thing about you.”

“I don’t ask you about your past Jack.” Ianto reminds him softly, “That’s Gwen.”

“I know who it is, but is that why? Because you don’t want to tell me about yours?” Jack asks.

“There’s nothing to tell, Jack.”

There’s an amused look on Jack’s face. “You know when someone is so insistent about something like that it usually means there’s a great deal to tell.”

Ianto sits up and turns to face him. “Of course you know that,” Ianto says remembering Jack’s words just after John Hart departed with that cryptic speech about someone or something called Grey.

It’s quiet in the car for nearly ten minutes before Jack speaks again. “Tit for tat.”

Ianto pulls himself back away from the window and looks at Jack. “See I know that phrase but I’m afraid for you it’s some form of weird sex game.”

Jack laughs. “No, you answer a question about you and I’ll answer one about me.”

Ianto is immediately torn. On one hand he’s dying to know more about Jack but at the same time he really doesn’t want to talk about himself. “No talking in circles?”

“If there’s something I can’t tell you because of future knowledge I’ll tell you that’s why,” Jack agrees. “You can even go first.”

“Alright then who is John Hart?” Ianto asks before even taking the chance to think about a question.

“He was my partner. Just work at first but he wasn’t lying. We were more or less married for five years.” Jack answers sighing. “He wasn’t always the way he is now, that’s my fault I’m afraid.”

Ianto rolls his eyes. “Why do you blame yourself for everything?”

“Nope my turn. Now I’ve know as well as anyone how sneaky you can be when the need arises but that shoplifting charge as a kid?”

Ianto laughs, he’s well aware they’ve both picked almost innocent questions as their first ones. “Do something enough and you become lazy and careless. It wasn’t the first time I’d been picked up for shoplifting but it was my first charge. Normally I could charm them out of filing but this cop had nabbed me before.”

“Juvenile delinquent. Oh how far we come,” Jack teases with a huge grin as if he’s truly amused that Ianto used to steal regularly.

“Alright then, how did you come to work at Torchwood?” Ianto asks and he’s testing the waters.

“I ended up stranded in Cardiff in the 1870s and made quite a spectacle of myself and Torchwood did what it did best back then,” Jack admits not looking particularly pleased.

“Hoard the strange and unexplainable.” Ianto agrees.

“Hoard is a very good description for what happened in my case. What about you? How did someone so young end up in Torchwood One?”

“For a while in London I lived with four university students. My best friend from the bunch was studying to become a doctor. She went missing for four days and when she came back she suddenly had a bit of money, keep in mind we were all piss broke and I made the most because I wasn’t actually attending uni. She also had this secret new job that was paying for all her schooling. One night she told me that her job was hiring and she thought I should apply, said she had a friend in personnel and she’d put in a good word. I had just been fired so I figured it was worth a go.” Ianto explains. “Imagine my face when they’re telling me aliens are real and I’ll be helping deal with their shit.”

“You lived with four other people?” Jack asks incredulously as he pulls into the parking spot outside of Ianto’s flat.

“It was a horrible shitty two bedroom flat and we stole cable and electric from the neighbors.” Ianto laughs remembering the fact that the entirety of one of his walls was covered in posters to hide the fact most of the drywall was missing.

“Two bedrooms among five people,” Jack’s smile says he’s clearly imagining the possible scenarios.

Ianto shakes his head and climbs out of the car. He pretends not to notice he’s gotten skilled at removing sleeping toddlers from their seats without waking them. He especially pretends not to notice that Jack leads the way up to the flat as if he lives there as well.

“What will you do with her when her four weeks are up,” Ianto asks later when they’re lying in bed.

Jack rolls over onto his stomach and watches Ianto carefully. “We can’t risk putting her in child services in Cardiff.”

“No.” Ianto agrees because Jack’s right.

“I was thinking Germany, actually.” Jack muses. “I have some contacts who owe me favors, she’s young enough that the language isn’t a problem.”

“So not just out of Cardiff but out of the country,” Ianto asks a little surprised.

“The farther away she is the less danger of her crossing her own time line or being discovered when she goes missing. “Jack explains this patiently though in theory Ianto knows he should have already thought of these things on his own.

“Just promise me, when they go to place her you’ll do a background check into the family.” Ianto says quietly.

Jack grabs his hand and squeezes in a reassuring gesture. “I promise. I’ll check on her regularly until she’s an adult. She came through the rift and that makes her my responsibility no matter where she’s living.”


	6. It's Catching

The rift is predicted to be quiet the following week, like low tide at the shore. Ianto isn’t sure why but he’s always imagined the rift like the surf along the coast bringing things from other lands (worlds) and depositing it on their beach (Cardiff). Sometimes it was plastic soda holders waiting to choke the life from some passing gull (various alien debris dropping into the public hand and causing chaos), sometimes it was oil spills (pockets of radiation and odd weather), and sometimes it was a message in a bottle (people from out of time Diane, Tommy, and yes even Tegan). Ianto liked his beach metaphor because it made the nature of the job less shitty when he thought about it.

Tegan of course developed an ear infection during this week. Ianto had noticed something wrong Sunday night when she’d fallen asleep before they’d even had dinner. Monday she spent most of the time lying on her mat chewing on the corner of her blanket and then Jack noticed the fever when he picked her up and tried to coax her into eating. A visit up to Owen, who moaned he wasn’t a bloody pediatrician, had confirmed she did in fact have an ear infection.

“She probably got the bug from one of your sister’s kids,” Owen announces setting the Otoscope down with a clang.

“Fucking Mica,” Ianto curses under his breath. He’s on the table to because it took two of them to pin Tegan down to look inside her ears.

“I’ll write you for antibiotics,” Owen says and pulls out a prescription pad he rarely uses. There’s enough adult medicine in the hub that they rarely needed to run to the chemist’s, there was no use for child medicine though. “It’ll be liquid and probably flavored like bubblegum or some horrid shit. She _needs_ to take it once you start, even if she fights hold her down and get it in. Kids have the same reflex dog’s do when you blow in their face.”

Ianto has absolutely no idea what that has to do with anything. “And this is important why?”

“She’ll swallow it rather than spit it out,” Owen sighs before stooping down to talk to Tegan. “Hear that, Te? No one likes a spitter, it’s dirty.”

“Could you not?” Ianto asks rolling his eyes at the doctor. “And exactly how is swallowing someone’s…” Ianto glances down at Tegan “bodily fluids even considered remotely hygienic.”

“I didn’t say hygienic, I said dirty. Clearly you’ve never had a bird spit a mouth load of jizz on your sheets.” Owen bites back completely unbothered by the toddler in the room.

“I worry about the sheer amount of DNA on your sheets,” Ianto laments shuddering at the thought.

“I worry about the sheer amount of spunk on _your_ sheets.” Owen tosses back as he hands Ianto the prescription.

Ianto shrugs and takes the note. “Given that I change them after, not really a worry.”

“Of course you do,” Owen snorts. “Do you make Jack come in a hanky as well?”

Jack chooses that exact moment to appear over the rail. “I’m sometimes very concerned about the conversations you two have.”

“Give it up, Jack,” Gwen calls from her desk. “They’re like peacocks, always strutting around each other.”

“I do not strut,” Ianto says indignantly.

Jack chuckles. “No you don’t,” but he says it in the tone one might use to humor a child. “How is she?” the question is for Owen.

“Ear infection, she’ll live.” Owen says and pushes Ianto’s shoulder to urge him to get up.

Ianto stands with Tegan curled against him, her forehead is hot even though his layers of clothes.

Jack eyes the prescription in Ianto’s hand and nods to it, “go fill that and take her home, she needs to be there more than here.”

Hesitating at the bottom of the stairs Ianto looks up. “It’s barely two.”

“Yes and your,” Jack paused and seemed to search for a word, “ward is sick. Take her home. It’s an order. We will call if we need you.”

Ianto nodded as he continued up the steps. “Alright, sir.”

He’s not used to having the afternoon off. It’s not really off though, Ianto has plenty to do thanks to whatever illness Tegan had picked up. While waiting for her medicine Ianto picks up a thermometer at the chemist’s because he’s doubtful he actually owns one. She takes the first dose of medication in the car without compliant (Owen’s right it smells horribly like bubblegum) and ignores his offers of food.

Once back at the flat he changes her into pajamas and settles her on the sofa with half the blankets he owns. He catches up on neglected housework from the past week, sticking his head into the living room every so often to check on Tegan. She’s neither awake nor asleep, instead she’s has her head turned towards the TV but doesn’t react to the flashy cartoons the way she normally does. Ianto pauses for a moment and wonders when he’d started considering things Tegan did as ‘normal’ and ‘not normal.’

His phone chimes.

_Home? – CJH_

Ianto reads it as “did you make it safely back to your house” rather than “did you make it safely back home” because one of those interpretations had bigger implications than the other.

_Yes, she’s fine. – IJ_

_Good call me if you need anything – CJH_

Ianto sighed and finished loading the laundry into his apartment sized washer. There were some of his clothes of course (shorts, undershirts, sock – because his suites were dry clean only and he had a bill to prove the cost) but he wondered when it became normal (there’s that word again) to know he had to check Jack’s pants pockets for the various garbage he seemed to collect in them or the fact that if a shirt of Tegan’s had sequins it needed to be washed inside out or he’d be finding them in his dryer for days.

Ianto managed to get everything into the washer before abandoning the rest of the chores. He felt like there was a life altering realization sitting just ahead and he wasn’t quite ready to realize it yet. Instead he did the next best thing. Of his DVD collection Star Wars was probably his most favorite and his most child friendly, not that Tegan was really watching. He put in Return of the Jedi before curling up on the couch with her. He barely makes it to Jabba’s palace before falling asleep.

He wakes to the sound of keys in the lock and blinks blearily looking for the time, it’s not even six. He watches through barely open eyes as Jack sweeps into the room and pauses at the foot of the couch.

“Go back to sleep, I’ll make dinner.”

Ianto nods, or at least he thinks he does, but the next thing he knows is Jack is gently shaking his leg and there is a distinct lack of Tegan between his arms. He finds her sitting at the table already with a bowl in front of her.

“Whatssit.” Ianto asks gesturing to the table. He swallows and tries again, “what is it?”

Jack helps him up off the couch. “It’s basically creamy scallop chowder.”

“Basically?” Ianto asks as he sits and stares into the bowl in front of him.

Jack shrugs, “It _is_ scallop chowder but it’s roughly based off a recipe my mother used to make whenever I was sick.”

“You ate scallops when you were sick?” Ianto asks and pushes it around a bit with his spoon.

“Does that count as a tit for tat?” Jack asks as he sits and starts eating from the third bowl.

Ianto considers it, “Yeah sure.” He’s still skeptical about his own dish. He’s not a huge fan of soups and stews, something about twenty ingredient mixed together and then reduced to mush never seemed appetizing.

“I grew up in a fishing colony right on the ocean, most of our meat once swam. We ended up forced from our homes into what was roughly a refugee camp and even then anytime I was sick my mother would beg and barter to get just enough ingredients to make me a bowl.” Jack explains, his eyes are clouded as he tells the story. Shaking his head he notices neither Ianto or Tegan have eaten any. “Try a bite, I won’t be offended if you don’t like it.”

Ianto feels obligated not only to eat it but to like it as well. He tentatively takes a taste and is pleasantly surprised. Pushing more into his mouth he discovers it’s actually a nice tasting chowder, the scallops not having dissolved into obscurity save it from the standard chowder mush. “It’s good.” He compliments and Jack smiles bright enough to put the sun to shame.

“Alright now it’s your turn miss,” Jack says as he turns to Tegan. He puts some from his bowl on the spoon and offers it to her. She regards it for a moment before opening her mouth. Ianto takes it as a good sign when she doesn’t immediately start sputtering like she’s prone to doing when she doesn’t like the taste of something. The true test is when she’s offered a second spoonful, she takes this one as well.

Jack looks rightfully smug as he continues to offer Tegan spoonfuls from his own bowl. He looks over and Ianto and smiles. “So what about you? Comfort foods growing up?”

Ianto sighs and swallows down his latest bite. “None really. Rhi made canned soup when I got sick but I’ve never been a fan of soups so it was actually easier to get me to eat normal foods. Mostly I just didn’t eat until I felt better.”

Jack frowns as he offers Tegan another bite, by this point she’s waiting like a baby bird as soon as she finishes each spoonful. “Nothing? What about your parents?”

“That’s cheating, Jack.” Ianto calls him on the secondary question mostly because he didn’t want to answer it. He knew his callout more than sealed the fate that the next question he was asked would be about his parents.

Jack puts up a hand as if to deflect Ianto. “Sorry, so it’s your turn then.”

Ianto muses on his questions for a while before deciding to continue with the current theme. “Alright you know I’ve got a sister. What about you? Siblings?”

Jack immediately looks as reluctant to answer this question as Ianto did about the parents question. Ianto almost hopes he deflects and calls a stalemate to their game, it would save him a great deal of uncomfortable questions. Still, it was rare for Jack to be so open about anything let alone his past. Ianto is deciding which path he hopes Jack will take when Jack opens his mouth to speak.

“A brother, I had a little brother. Always wanting to tag along with me everywhere and I kind of hated and loved it.” Jack’s smile is sad and broken when he pauses. “He died, I guess, during one of the attacks on our village when we were kids. Never found a body but those days we rarely did.”

Ianto has to swallow the lump in his throat several times before he trusts himself to speak. “Oh Jack,” is all he manages to get out. He hooks one of his legs around Jack’s under the table and they continue on in relative silence.

“I think you should stay home with her tomorrow,” Jack says after they’ve both crawled in bed for the night.

“Is this Jack the boss speaking or Jack my boyfriend?” Ianto asks because he’ll approach things differently depending on which one is true. The word boyfriend still sits awkwardly in his mouth but now that Jack’s let him use the word he’s going to try it out and see how it fits.

Jack smiles. “Both?”

Ianto makes a buzzer sound with his mouth. “Nope, nice try. As a rule I generally don’t date my boss, looks weird to others. Pick one.”

“Oh really?” Jack asks and both his eyebrows are reaching for his hairline. “Alright then this is Jack the concerned guardian thinking it’s a good idea for Tegan to rest at home.”

 _At home_. The phrase echoes around in Ianto’s head. He shakes his head and tries to push it back into the broom cupboard of things he’s not ready to deal with, it’s getting quiet cramped in there he notes.

As appealing as the idea of lounging at home for a day is Ianto sighs because he does actually have work to do. “I have so much work to do, Jack. There’s the archiving, I need to place a supplies order before we run out of printer ink and pens, not to mention the weevil cells haven’t had a good hose down in over a week and I think the fungus is growing feelings.”

Jack reaches up and tenderly places a hand on Ianto’s cheek, “we would drown without you.” He looks contemplative for a moment. “Fine then, I’ll stay here with her while you go into work.”

Ianto is so surprised by this suggestion that he actually recoils from Jack. He leans up on his elbow and considers for a brief second where his gun is hidden. “Jack?”

Jack shrugs obviously amused by the shock Ianto’s feeling. “Well you do actually have a reasonable list of work to do and you guys get along without me just fine. It’ll only be for one day.”

Ianto considers this. They survived pretty well for four months while Jack was off with his Doctor. “What if we need you?” He asks because there had been times, even in those four months, where they had desperately needed Jack. They’d skated by but only just in those instances.

“I have a mobile.” Jack says and thumbs over his shoulder where said device is laying. “In the case of apocalypse I can come in and bring her it’s just it would be better if one of us at least tried to stay here with her.”

“Alright,” Ianto agrees after a moment, “but you need to call Gwen and let her know so she doesn’t try to shoot me tomorrow when I tell her.

It turns out to be a good idea that Jack decided to stay home for the day because Tegan wakes up no less than four times during the night. Each time Jack is out of the room before Ianto can even think to roll over.

He wakes with his alarm and isn’t really surprised when Jack’s not in bed with him. He does find Jack on the couch with Tegan on his chest, both are so deep asleep they don’t even flinch when Ianto walks by them. They sleep through his shower and the sounds of the coffee maker, Ianto makes sure there’s some left for Jack before he leaves. He spares them one last glance before heading to work, it’s decidedly odd to leave Jack behind and head into work.

It wasn’t like Jack never left them alone for the day, he did it semi regularly. No what was odd was the fact that Jack wasn’t working. When he left them for the day it was to run to London for a meeting with unit or to deal with some problem he felt was better handling alone. Today Jack was sitting in a flat twenty minutes from the hub taking care of a sick child. Ianto allowed an amused smile on his face when he pondered if this was a sign of yet another impending apocalypse.

Gwen’s already there when he gets in and flashes him one of her smiles. “So he’s actually taking a day off?”

“He was actually still asleep when I left.” Ianto confides with a sheepish grin.

Gwen looks as shocked as he felt. “Get out!”

“No really, all tucked in on the couch with Tegan. Didn’t even wake for the coffee machine.”

“I’d have thought that was a bit like Pavlov for him now.” Gwen teases. The cog door rolls back with another alarm to allow Tosh in for the day. “Jack’s not here!” Gwen calls excitedly.

Tosh takes a sip from her cup, it’s Starbucks but Ianto lets it pass because he knows it’s just tea. “Oh? Where is he?”

“At Ianto’s with Tegan,” Gwen says this like it’s the most novel idea in the world.

Tosh smiles from behind her cup at Ianto. It’s not as big as Gwen’s or as bright as Jack’s but it means just the same because their tech rarely finds reason to bring out her genuine smile. “So I take it things are going well then?”

Ianto shrugs. “Seem to be, yeah.”

Owen’s arrival stops the gossip in its tracks. Just because they get by alright without Jack doesn’t mean it isn’t odd to have him in the building, they all seem to look over their shoulders every few minutes waiting for him. Still Ianto finds time to do a fair amount of the hundred and one things he hasn’t been since Tegan arrive. One of these things is cleaning out Jack’s office, the desk looks a bit like he was trying to rebuild a tree one sheet of paper at a time. Ianto knows what can be thrown and what needs to be save, what he can finish and what can only be done by Jack. Not having Jack around makes the task go by much quicker since he’s not trying to dodge grabby hands or think of comebacks to lewd innuendos, but he does kind of miss it.

They take a leisurely lunch in the conference room.

“So Jack’s playing housewife today,” Owen says with a mouthful of rice.

“He can be very… domestic, if the situation calls for it,” Ianto agrees after taking care to swallow his own food.

Gwen beams brightly from Jack’s seat at the head of the conference table. “So have you two thought about keeping her?”

“What?” Ianto says completely confused.

Gwen pats his hand. “Tegan. You two have been more of a couple than Rhys and I since she came through. Parenthood has been good for you.”

“Oh, no. No. It’s just he feels responsible for her and since I agreed to watch her he’s worried I’ll feel overwhelmed or something.” Ianto explains. “After the month is up she’ll be going to Germany for adoption.”

“Really? I guess I’d just gotten so used to her around.” Tosh asks from the other side of the table. “You two do seem quite happy.”

“No, just a temporary thing.” Ianto restates.

Owen snorts elegantly from next to Tosh. “Good, can you imagine tea-boy and Jack raising a kid? ‘Oh I’d love to come fight the Abzorboloff but Tegan’s got a tummy ache’”

“What you’re saying no one in Torchwood has ever had a child?” Gwen asks, her eyes darting between the three people in the room.

“Not in Cardiff, or if they did they didn’t last long.” Owen says.

“In London we had quite a few people with families and children but there were also over 800 people who worked there so it was a bit different.” Ianto explains and he almost feels sorry for Gwen because she begins to look upset.

“Cardiff was never meant to be all of Torchwood. That was London,” Tosh says quietly. “We were just supposed to be here and clean up after the rift, like a satellite base. Before Jack became leader if anything got too big London would be called in to deal with it. Jack did call them in a few times but he liked them much the same as he does UNIT.”

“After London fell Torchwood 3 became it.” Ianto finishes for Tosh. “The most people who ever worked in Cardiff at the same time is nine and that was back in the seventies.”

Gwen looks utterly shocked and Ianto remembers how much she still doesn’t know about Torchwood and it’s past. “But what about the others? When I first met him Jack said there was a two and a four.”

“Two is the old Torchwood House. Archie is kind enough and he has a small staff but they’re mostly researchers and archivists. And Torchwood four is well… missing” Ianto says with a shrug.

“Yeah I remember Jack saying something. But what happened?” Gwen pushes.

Tosh leans forward conspiratorially “Happened in the mid 80s before any of us. One minute they were in communication, chatter bouncing between here and London and then suddenly no more. They sent a team to look for them and all they found was an empty lot outside of Lisburn.”

They devolved into gossip and trading ideas about what happened to Torchwood Four. Ianto is the first to slip away citing the fact that he has a to do list the length of his arm. He’s glad that that the conversation had steered away from his personal life. Regardless of how twined his work and personal life were he still tried to keep them separate.

He honestly hadn’t thought of keeping Tegan, he was a twenty-four-year-old workaholic who up until a few weeks ago kept nothing but old takeaway in his refrigerator. Not to mention the weird maybe relationship he was carrying on with his boss. Sure he liked Jack, a lot, and yes they spent almost every night together for the last few months but it wasn’t like any relationship Ianto had in the past. They’d been on one date. They had scheduled another but alien space debris interrupted those plans. The only reason Jack had met Ianto’s family or spent a day off with him was because the rift had deposited a toddler in their laps. And those things didn’t make mention of the fact that they both risked death on an hourly basis for the sake of the world.

It wasn’t exactly the recipe for a successful family.

Ianto sighed and rolled up his sleeves in preparation for going down to hose out the weevil cells. He was really over thinking things. In a week Tegan will be whisked off to Germany and life will settle back into what it was. Ianto assumes he’ll feel better about it after it happens because (and he would be pressed to admit this out loud) Owen is right, Torchwood and families are not a good mix.

He can hear the music as soon as he enters the building and immediately knows it’s coming from his flat. It’s not that Wendel from the first floor didn’t play his music obnoxiously loud but usually that was the typical pop music that made Ianto seriously consider shooting his neighbor. No, if he’s not mistaken this is The Temptations pouring out from behind his door. He stops, key in the lock, and wonders if loud music is such a good idea with Tegan’s ear infection.

“I’ve got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees,” Jack’s voice carries above the music now that Ianto’s inside the door. “Well I’d guess you’d say, what can make me feel this way?”

Ianto finds them in the middle of the living room dancing, his coffee table has been pushed against the wall to make room and he only rolls his eyes a little. Jack’s wearing his trousers and undershirt, button up and bracers nowhere to be scene, and he barefoot. Tegan is wearing a different pair of pajamas from this morning and her hair is up in a single gather smack on top of her head.

Not wanting to interrupt he leans against the wall and watches as they dance about the room seemingly oblivious to his presence. With every repetition of “my girl” Jack dips Tegan in his arms so she’s almost upside down. She’s clearly feeling better because she dissolved into peals of laughter. Ianto smiles as he watches them. As the song comes to and end Jack glances over his shoulder and winks at Ianto leaving Ianto to wonder how long Jack knew he was there. Sometimes he’s envious of the captain’s unabashed nature.

The iPod, _Ianto’s_ iPod, moves onto a new song as Jack strides across the room in his way. Even half dressed, or maybe because he was half dressed, he had a walk that demanded attention. He pressed a soft, chaste kiss to Ianto’s lips and asked, “how was work?”

Ianto was nearly sick on his shoes.

He smiled weakly and skirted past Jack into the kitchen. The nausea subsided with his second glass of water but Jack was behind him leaning against the island. “You’re not getting sick too, are you?”

Ianto shook his head. “No just a random thing.” He turned and crossed the room and kissed Jack again. “Work was fine. I actually got done quite a bit. How was your day.” The nausea rose up in his throat with that final question.

“Woke up from a nap and basically started bouncing off the walls so I think she’s feeling better. She likes dancing, _a lot._ We’ve been dancing for almost an hour now.” Jack said but he looked at Ianto skeptically, “are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” Ianto insisted and he took Tegan from Jack. “Gwen wants to let you know you don’t have to come back, your desk chair is apparently comfortable.”

“Have you told her what we’ve done in that chair?” Jack asked and wiggled his eyebrows salaciously.

Ianto laughed, “nope, I let that one go.”

When they ate dinner Ianto noticed they had seats. When they finished Ianto noticed Jack immediately gathered them up for washing while he took Tegan for a bath. After the bath Ianto noticed Jack had already put Goodnight Moon on the coffee table because that’s what Tegan liked best before bed. Ianto noticed after they were done reading Jack kissed her goodnight and as he laid her down he stuck his hand under the travel cot’s mat and found the dummy because it always ended up down there.

Ianto noticed.

He suddenly wanted to shake Gwen until her teeth rattled because had she not said anything he wouldn’t have noticed. He wouldn’t have noticed how there was a routine and a sense of peace that hadn’t been there four weeks ago. But he did and now he had to deal with it.

It wasn’t that he believed Jack’s plan was wrong, he knew for a fact it was the logical and sane choice. It was now that he had acknowledge that the situation had changed into something he like that he was going to have to deal with those emotions when the time came to hand her over. He also now had to acknowledge that this new comfortable relationship with Jack was going to snap back to what it had been a month ago.

“Where are you?” Jack asks and Ianto suddenly realizes Jack was watching him.

“Nowhere just woolgathering.” Ianto says with a weak smile he’d meant to be convincing.

“You know you can tell me what you’re thinking sometimes, even if it seems pointless.” Jack says but doesn’t push any further than that.


	7. Saying Goodbye

Ianto spends the rest of the week focusing on all things he’ll be able to do once Tegan goes. He’ll be able to sit up late in his living room watching TV, he’ll be able to get back out in the field and actually help, and he’ll be able to reclaim the portion of his office that’s devoted to her. He keeps reminding himself it’ll be good for them both when she leaves: she’ll get a proper family and Jack assured him they would be good people and Ianto will be able to go back to his life the way it was.

Gwen had tried to fight Jack over it, the whole time she’d been staring over his shoulder at Ianto. Ianto sometimes admired her tenacity but there were just as many times that he wished she knew when to let it drop. Gwen had gotten an idea into her head and that meant she was going to cling to the idea that one could work for Torchwood and have a family life. Never mind she hadn’t actually consulted with Ianto or Jack on this matter. Ianto wasn’t sure if she was so attached to the idea because she truly thought that they could make a little happy family or if she was afraid for her future and wanted to make them her own personal guinea pigs.

Jack watches him quietly as packs up her things the night before her four weeks is up. Either there will be a miracle tonight or Tegan will be getting on a plane bound for Germany tomorrow afternoon. Tegan was of course oblivious to this and it made Ianto feel guilty. He’d tried explaining she was going on a plane ride tomorrow but there was only so much abstract a two year old understood. She was sitting at Jack’s feet playing with a large wooden puzzle that Ianto wasn’t actually sure how she’d come to possess.

“So how long in Germany for you then,” Ianto asks Jack trying to break the odd tension in the room.

“Two nights, I’ll be back Thursday afternoon.” Jack says but his voice is quieter than normal.

Ianto sighs and turns around to look him square in the face. “You’re thinking about Gwen.”

“Not really, just some things she said that got me thinking.” Jack admits with a lazy shrug.

“Stop Jack, you’re doing the best you can. Gwen’s ideals are lovely and wonderful but that’s not how the real world works.” Ianto says and turns to continue gathering up Tegan’s toys. How she’s acquired so many in such little time is beyond his comprehension.

“But she’s right on some of it.” Jack points out quietly. “After the awkwardness of that first week Tegan really made you shine. You were… happy I supposed.”

“Jack,” Ianto stands suddenly with his back so stiff he can feel his muscle clenching. It’s one thing to hear this speech from Gwen but for Jack to say it is verging on too much.

Jack sighs now and Ianto doesn’t even have to turn to know he’s crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s right though, Ianto, I’ve been here watching you and frankly the fact that you won’t even acknowledge how much these past few weeks have meant to you is concerning.”

Ianto turns abruptly. “Fine Jack. Gwen bloody Cooper is right. I love Tegan and I don’t know how that’s fucking possible since it’s been four fucking weeks.” His voice is low and he’s trying to control it so he doesn’t startle the toddler. “But because I love her I’m telling you to put her on a plane to bloody Germany before I can fuck up her life any more than it already is.”

“How could you possibly screw up her life?” Jack’s face is emotionless and Ianto feels the heat rise to his neck because damn Jack Harkness for always knowing how to get a rise out of him.

Ianto snorts inelegantly. “Because everything I touch, everything I love, fucking withers and dies, Jack. Or have you not noticed? Because Lisa was a big fucking neon sign. Not just Lisa though, everything. The only reason you haven’t is because apparently you’re immortal!” Ianto is struggling not to shout. In the back of his mind he realizes what he’s implied but he’s not ready to face that particular revelation today.

Jack’s impassive face cracks just enough. “Ianto, come on now not ever-“ he’s cut off by Ianto forcefully chucking the bag onto the floor.

“Yes, Jack, everyone.” Ianto hisses through his teeth. He tries for a moment to breath, to find his calm again. “Let’s start at the beginning shall we? My mam? You’re always so curious about my childhood. Well she’s fucking dead, Jack. When I was six she slit her wrists with a fucking kitchen knife while we were at school. The last time I saw her she told me the world was ending and we were all going to burn to death. I was six!”

“Ianto,” Jack tries but Ianto’s on a roll now.

“No, you started this and now you’re going to fucking listen. My father, if you’re so inclined to call him that, crawled face first into a bottle and left the raising of his six year old to his eleven year old daughter. He hated us, me most of all because I look like her. When I was nine he broke my fucking leg. Those scars on my back you think are from Canary Wharf? Those are from when I was twelve and he beat me with a belt so severely not an inch of my back wasn’t bleeding.

I was fifteen when I fell in love for the first time. We were together four months before she told me she was pregnant. We were going to run away to London together but she panicked and told her parents. Her father punched me so hard I thought my nose was broken and then he whisked her away almost overnight.

When my father finally had the fucking decency to die I ran off to London thinking I’d rewrite my shitty past. I did okay for a while but it’s me and all good things must end. So of course I went and I met Lisa. We know how that ended don’t we?

And while we’re at it lets look at you. That _thing_ fucking killed you and that was before I really even gave a shit about you. Then if that was enough I went and participated in a fucking mutiny that caused Owen to shoot you in the fucking head and then jumpstarted the fucking apocalypse.

My only, and I do mean my only, saving grace is you can’t actually die and statistically sometime in the next four months I will die before I can ruin anyone else’s life.” Ianto was breathing so hard it wasn’t actually doing him any good. His vision was swimming and his ears were ringing.

He didn’t want to look like a dramatic teenager but he couldn’t be in the same room as Jack. He couldn’t look him in the face and see the pity he saw whenever people found out about his past. He turned and bolted into his bedroom shutting the door behind him.

He was angry. Angry at Gwen bloody Cooper for planting ideas in his head, in Jack’s head. Angry at Jack for even entertaining those ideas. Angry at the fucking universe for its royally fucked up cosmic jokes. Angry at Jack again for knowing exactly which buttons to push to send him into an epic tailspin of angst and self-loathing he worked so hard to ignore.  

He considered screaming into his pillow for a brief second but realized how childish that would look. Instead he settled for sitting on the end of his bed and glaring angrily at the darkening evening sky.

The sky was inky black by the time the door to his bedroom opened and soft light flooded in. Ianto blinked and glanced at the clock. He’d been staring blankly at the window for almost two hours. He’s suddenly mortified at his outburst and barely contains a cringe when Jack drops onto the bed next to him.

“I put Tegan to bed,” Jack says after a minute of silence.

Ianto nods because he doesn’t trust himself to speak any more.

“I knew your childhood wasn’t great,” Jack continues and Ianto can see him glancing at him in his peripheral vison. “When I looked into your past I saw your mom’s suicide but I guess I never stopped and figured how old you were. I didn’t know the rest…”

Ianto sighs and drops his head into his hands. “You couldn’t. Mam was sick for a long time. I didn’t know until just before tad died but she was schizophrenic and had refused medication during her pregnancy with Rhiannon and I guess it just got worse from there.”

“There were no police reports about your father.” Jack prompts quietly.

“No, there wouldn’t be. We lied. Every time he broke a bone or beat me bad enough Rhi couldn’t patch me up we lied. Sometimes we could make up stories of how it happened or sometimes we’d just give them bad names. It was better to put up with it than risk telling.” Ianto admits into his hands.

Jack reaches over and pulls one of his hands away. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”

Ianto refused to look at Jack but allows him to hold his hand. “I don’t need pity. I don’t want you or anyone else to pity me and I guess I didn’t want you to see how broken I am. You saw enough with Lisa. I didn’t want you to send me away in some misguided effort to ‘give me a normal life.’”  

Jack was very quiet for a while and Ianto wondered if the conversation was over. Of course as soon as he thought this Jack opened his mouth to speak. “I don’t pity you. If anything I’m in awe of you. You’ve been through so much shit since almost the day you were born and you’re still an amazing, decent, and loving man.”

Ianto risks a glance at Jack and is relieved when he finds the older man gazing out the window at the Cardiff skyline. “But now you see why.” Ianto means to say this but it comes out as something barely audible.

Jack tilts his chin toward Ianto but doesn’t actually look to him. “No, I don’t.”

Sighing Ianto pulls his hand away from Jack and stands. “I’m too afraid to become him. I wouldn’t be any good.”

Jack sighs exaggeratedly but says nothing further. They stay in silence for a while, both of them looking out the window. It’s Jack who eventually breaks the silence, standing he comes up behind Ianto and wraps an arm around his waist. “You’ll never become him, that’s one thing I’m certain of,” he presses a kiss into Ianto’s hair, “but I won’t press you any further.”

Ianto turns into Jack’s embrace, “thank you.”

Eventually they crawl into the bed but neither of them sleep much. Ianto spends most of the time trying to quiet his mind.

He had never really give thought to being a parent. He’d spend so much of his adolescence raging at his father swearing he’d never be like him and yet he’d done so many of the same things. Much of the time between seventeen and twenty was a hazy blur. He’d spent so much time high or drunk there were entire months he was missing. He used to pick fights for the sake of it, always managing to goad the other person into striking first which was a skill he’d learned from his father. He stole and lied to get what he needed, at the time he’d reasoned it was survival, but it was no different than what his father had done.

When he had finally come out of the self-pity induced raged he’d been sick with himself when he’d noticed the similarities and swore he’d never be like that again. He’d seen Torchwood as his penance, something he could do to atone for the sins he’d racked up in the past.

He’d seen Lisa as a gift, a cosmic reward for paying his due. Even though Torchwood One was different and plenty of his coworkers had families it was all too easy to take the over time. To stay until eight at night or work on the weekends on new projects he was given. Lisa saw things in the same light. When they’d spoken about children for the first time and she’d expressed her lack of interest he’d felt an odd sort of bittersweet relief that she was so sure of what she wanted that he’d only had to follow.

Then when he’d arrived back in Cardiff there had never been any room to consider the future. First he’d been obsessed with saving Lisa, making her whole again. Then he’d been so filled with guilt and grief he’d renewed his view of Torchwood as his penance for everything he’d done. Then there was Jack. He wasn’t stupid, there was no future for him with Jack. Jack had millions of lifetimes awaiting him and Ianto wasn’t even comfortable planning a year in advanced for anything. Most Torchwood Three employees didn’t see past five years with the organization. The smart few fled, most of them missing great chunks of their lives, and the unlucky many died saving the world.

No, Ianto no longer gave the future thought and he’d thought he was happy to live in the here and now. It seemed cruel for Jack to wave a possible future under his nose even though Jack knew as well as he did the likelihood of Ianto seeing his next birthday. He knew Jack wasn’t intentionally trying to be unkind but it hurt nonetheless.

It was almost four when Ianto gave the pretense of sleeping and rolled onto his stomach to look at Jack. He wasn’t at all surprised to find Jack staring blankly at the ceiling. Jack slept a lot more lately than he did before he left with the Doctor but still a lot less than a normal person.

“You’re awake,” Ianto whispers.

“So are you,” Jack agreed flicking his eyes down to look at him.

Ianto can see Jack thinking, jaw working like he’s working up the nerve to say something. He crashes his lips to Jack’s in an effort to stop any further conversation. Jack, for maybe the first time, resists just a bit but when Ianto throws his leg over Jack’s waist he gives in.

Jack’s already naked so it’s easy when Ianto brakes the kiss to slide down his body and take him into his mouth. Jack’s still mostly soft when he does but Ianto licks and sucks until he’s hard, it’s an odd sensation but one Ianto enjoys immensely. Jack groans under the onslaught his hips coming up off the bed every so often in a restrained thrust. Ianto’s hard himself and can’t resist rubbing onto the bedding, he gasps at the friction which gets a great reaction from Jack.

Smirking, Ianto pulls away just enough and slide his hands under Jack’s arse and tilting his hips up. He licks a line down from the head of his cock, running over the midline of his balls and then down to the ring of muscle below. He laps there softly and Jack start rolling his hips trying to gain more contact. Suddenly Ianto stabs his tongue in and Jack arches both away and towards him with a muffled cry. Ianto doesn’t have to look up to know Jack’s got his arm over his mouth in an effort to quiet himself. He works at the ring of muscle until Jack’s loose and gasping words in a language Ianto’s never heard before.

He sits back and for a second allows himself to admire the view of Jack wantonly laid out across his bed. He leans up and as he fumbles around in his nightstand for the lube Jack grabs his head and jerks him down for a kiss. Ianto momentarily forgets his mission as Jack licks into his mouth eagerly. He’s reminded of what he was doing when Jack snakes a hand between them and grab holds of Ianto’s cock stroking him expertly. He lets out a noise of triumph, which causes Jack to chuckle into his mouth, when he finally gets his fingers around the bottle of lube.

Grabbing Jack’s hand Ianto reluctantly pulls it away from himself. He flicks open the cap of the lube and drizzles some into Jack’s hand. “You may continue,” he whispers playfully.

Jack raises and eyebrow and as he continues his ministrations on Ianto’s cock he teases, “yes, sir.”

Ianto growls and nips at Jack’s bottom lip. He doesn’t bother with lube for Jack, he rarely needs it (some sort of 51st century sex thing Ianto often wonders to himself) and he’s still coated in Ianto’s spit. He pulls Jack’s hand away and settles it on his hip before positioning himself at Jack’s entrance. As he pushes in he has to stop twice in a concentrated effort not to end things before they even began.

Once he’s completely inside of Jack, something he will never _ever_ tire of, he stills. There’s no real reason behind it he knows but it drives Jack nuts. Jack lasts less than three seconds before growling deep in his chest and beginning to flex around Ianto. It’s a dirty play but works like a charm. Ianto begins thrusting into Jack setting an easy rhythm, teasing him back. He leans up to Jack and rests his forearms on either side of his shoulders. The new position prevents Ianto from thrusting deeply, the tip of his cock just barely clipping Jack’s prostate.

“Oh it’s like that is it?” Jack rumbles.

Ianto is less than surprised when Jack deftly flips them so Ianto is on his back, head hanging just off the edge of the bed. He watches as Jack crawls on top of him and with a wicked grin Jack grabs hold of his cock and slowly starts to sink down onto him. Ianto’s eyes flutter shut and he lets his head fall back.

Jack sets a brutal pace and the sound skin on skin is unmistakable. For the angle of Ianto’s head his throat is just barely constricted and he’s lucky for that or else he’d no doubt wake Tegan. Instead he revels in the slight light headedness and feel of Jack riding him. It’s not long before he feels the tightening in the base of his stomach. He reaches up to stroke Jack but find’s the other man’s hand already there. For one brief second he contemplates moving Jack’s hand away but instead lets his hand fall back down to the mattress. He uses his arms as leverage and begins to thrust up into Jack. Ianto comes with a loud groan breaking painfully past his oddly bent throat and somewhere past the rushing of blood in his ears he hears Jack give a shout.

Ianto’s laying there bonelessly trying to catch his breath when Jack starts chuckling. “Whasso funny?” he mumbles.

Jack, who had apparently crawled off of him, grabs hold of his hips and drags Ianto completely onto the bed. Ianto cracks one eye as Jack leans up over his face. “You’ve got some cum on your face,” Jack’s still chuckling.

Ianto is suddenly aware of the drying cum coating both his chest and his chin. Groaning he wipes up as much of it as he can with his fingers. He opens both his eyes and only seeing Jack smiling down at him, he shrugs and drags his messy finger’s through the other man’s hair.

“Hey!” Jack yelps and pulls back.

Ianto snickers and rolls onto his side, one arm flopping over the edge of the bed groping around for something to wipe up with. “Makes great hair gel I’ve heard.”

Jack delivers a stinging slap to Ianto’s arse. “I’m really appalled by your movie watching sometimes.”

“If you get the reference you’re just as bad.” Ianto says before giving up his search. Checking the clock, he sighs. “Might as well be up for the day.”

They manage to sleep past a still sleeping Tegan on the way to the shower where Jack only attempts to grope Ianto twice. Jack walks back to the bedroom naked, and Ianto is thankful Tegan is still asleep. He on the other hand wraps himself in a towel and tip toes by. It’s as they’re dressing Jack says something that take Ianto completely by surprise.

“We need a weapons expert,” Jack says thoughtfully as he throws himself down on the edge of the bed.

Ianto raises a brow at him through the mirror on his wardrobe. “We do,” he agrees.

“While I’m in Germany go through the CVs and narrow it down. We’ll schedule interviews when I get back.”

“Jack?” Ianto asks tentatively. It’s not that he disagrees or that he wants Jack to change his mind it’s just that not that long ago Jack was arguing that they _didn’t_ need anyone new in the hub.

Jack meets Ianto’s eyes in the mirror and shrugs. “I’m the closest thing we’ve got to one now and I was thinking we should find someone who has more knowledge of why things go boom versus how to make them go boom.”

Ianto nods quickly. “Yes, that would be helpful. Less blowing up is always good.” He turns and presses a soft kiss to Jack’s lips.

As they kiss Tegan lets out a high pitched squeal. Jack’s the one to pull back with a wry smile. “The princess has spoken.”

Ianto gets Tegan ready for the day while Jack finishes packing up all her things including folding up the travel cot. Ianto takes the time to pull up Tegan’s hair into the gigantic sparkly bow Jack had purchase for her not long ago. They load everything into the boot of Ianto’s car, some of it ending up having to go into the seat next to Tegan’s car seat.

Jack had decided to take Tegan to the hub first before leaving to allow the others to say good bye and so he could gather up the last of the fabricated documents.

Gwen tears up almost instantly upon realizing what day it is. She takes Tegan from Ianto and snuggles her as Tosh and Jack go over the details of documents. Ianto had almost found it amusing that even Owen had come up and awkwardly patted Tegan’s head when he came in. When Tosh and Jack emerged from the office she took Tegan from Gwen and held her as Ianto helped Jack into his coat.

Ianto drove them to the airport while Tegan babbled in the backseat and Jack flipped through some of the documents in the manila envelope he had brought with. One of the perks of being Torchwood was the ability to drive directly onto the tarmac, Jack frequently abused this privilege with glee, Ianto used it this time because the idea of dealing with a toddler in a busy airport did not sound appealing.

Another frequently abused privilege was the one where Jack just had all of the baggage loaded on the plane without going through any security checks. This privilege had its appeal when a good portion of the time their luggage was filled with various alien devices and weapons. Ianto sighed exaggeratedly as Jack opened the boot and flirted with one of the baggage handlers. He shook his head from the sight and reached in to pull Tegan from the carseat.

Sitting on the now empty back seat he held the toddler to him. “Tegan you’re going to go on that plane with Jack.” He explains and pointed across the way to the airplane.

Tegan follows his finger with her eyes and bounces slightly in his lap. “Plane! Plane!”

Ianto couldn’t help but chuckle at her exclamation. “Yep, you’re going to go with Jack and meet some new people. They’ll be very good to you.” He continues even though he was fairly certain Tegan didn’t understand him anymore this time than the last time he tried to explain. “You need to be good for Jack and your new friends though, alright Tegan?”

Tegan nods and Ianto hugs her closer and placed a kiss to her forehead. “Behave, cariad.”

Jack suddenly clears his throat from behind them. “We’re already to board,” he says and holds out his hands for Tegan. Jack looks like he wants to say more, again, but is holding back.

Ianto nods before standing and passing Tegan over to Jack. He reaches into the car and pulls out her Minnie Mouse doll and blanket and tucks them in Jack’s arms around her. He leans forward and kisses her head one more time before turning to press a chaste kiss to Jack’s lips. “Take care.”

Jack nods and turns to walk to the plane, just before going up the steps he turns to glance at Ianto. Ianto wants to roll his eyes at the dramatic motion but simply nods his head at Jack. And then just as quickly they climb aboard the plane.

Ianto slides back into the driver’s seat of his car and lays his head on the wheel with a heavy sigh.


	8. A Change of Mind

Ianto situated himself in Jack’s office the afternoon Jack and Tegan left. He had an impressive stack of CVs in front of him and was sorting out everyone who did not qualify as a “weapons expert.” He was just about at the bottom of the pile when the door to the office opened and Gwen stepped inside. Ianto sighed inwardly but only looked up at her with an impassive look on his face.

“Well don’t you look right at home,” Gwen teased as she moved to sit in the other chair.

Ianto snorted. “I figured I do most of the work anyway might as well steal the office.”

“To right, has a lovely chair or so I’ve heard.” She said with a wink.

“Did you need something?” Ianto asked after a few moments of her sitting and watching him with a soft expression on her face.

“So they’re in Germany,” Gwen stated.

Ianto nodded. “Touched down twenty minutes ago, Jack messaged.”

“So you’re alright with it then?”

Ianto sighed and set down the file he was currently holding and looked at her. “Yes, I’m fine with it.”

Gwen nodded but she was watching him skeptically. “It’s okay to want more you know.” Ianto wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince, herself or him.

“It is.” Ianto agreed, again no sure who he was answering for.

“What’s that about?” Gwen asked as she nodded to the piles of folders.

Ianto shrugged, not sure if Jack actually wanted the others to know about his sudden interest in hiring someone new. “Just some paperwork Jack asked me to go through in his absence.”

Gwen snorted. “Ah, our fearless leader running from filling out forms.”

“Papercuts are rather terrifying,” Ianto remarked acerbically.

“I’ll be sure to tell the Captain how you bravely fought the paperwork monster in his absence.” Gwen teased as she stood. She turned and made it all the way to the door before stopping and turning around. “You do know all I want is for all of us to be happy, right? That includes you.”

Ianto smiled genuinely up at her. “Thank you, Gwen.”

“Just do what makes you happy, Ianto.” She said and left the office.

Ianto was surprised to find himself considering her words as he narrowed down the files even more. There were certain personalities he could immediately tell would not mesh well with the group and those were tossed back into the larger pile. His goal was to narrow it down to five candidates (and have backups incase Jack tossed them all out) before Jack returned from Germany.

He was deciding which of the files made it into the top five when his phone ring. “Jones.” He answered not bothering the look at the ID.

“Jones,” Jack voice drawled over the line.

“Captain Harkness,” Ianto returned dully though a smile spread across his face.

Jack chuckled. “Cardiff intact?”

Ianto nodded though he realized Jack couldn’t actually see him. “Well… I did give Owen the passcode to the heavy weaponry.”

“You didn’t?” Jack gasped actually sounding mildly alarmed.

It was Ianto’s turn to chuckle, ”No, sir. All is well. Owen is using scalples for darts, Gwen is browsing wedding dresses and Tosh is working on some defense program that I’m not sure I understand.”

“And you, Ianto?”

“I’ve staked claim to your office and have been loafing about.” Ianto deadpanned.

“Now I really know the world is ending.” Jack teased.

“How’s Germany?”

“It’s very… German.” Jack conceded.

Ianto was about to ask exactly what he meant when he heard a tiny voice in the background. “Tegan?”

“Uh… just. Put that down, Te.” Jack answered distractedly and Ianto raised his eyebrow.

“Things alright, Jack?” Ianto asked.

Jack snorted. “All under control. New room, new things to explore. She keeps trying to get me to open the door.”

“So when are you meeting with them.” Ianto asked suddenly.

“We met with them right as we got off the plane actually.” Jack said and Ianto could hear Tegan in the background. “We’re going to spend some more time with Gina tomorrow and she’ll go with her tomorrow night.”

Ianto sighed because the thought of sending Tegan off with a stranger where she’d be sent to yet other strangers was excruciating. He’d thought he’d talked himself past this but the clenching in his gut was evidence to the contrary. “Right, good.”

“Ianto-“ Jack started but Ianto couldn’t let him continue.

“I’ve got to go, Jack. I am actually working.” Ianto cut him off.

Jack sighed heavily on the other end of the line. “Alright then, I’ll talk to you tonight.”

“Talk to you later, Jack.” Ianto hung up the phone and dropped his head into his hands.

There was a knock and the door and Ianto looked up to see Tosh holding two mugs in her hands. “Ianto?”

Ianto plastered on a smile. “Did you need coffee?”

Tosh tutted and sat in the chair by the desk. “No, Ianto. I brought you some tea.”

Ianto felt the smile on his face grow genuine. “Thank you, Tosh.”

Tosh nodded and took a sip of her tea all the while watching Ianto over the top of the mug. “How’s Germany?” She asked gesturing to the phone.

Ianto shrugged mid sip of his drink. “Jack says it’s German which could mean any number of things.”

Tosh let out a small laugh. “At least he’s got a chaperone.”

“For now,” Ianto agreed in a softer voice.

He jumped a little when Tosh set her mug on the desk rather violently. “Why are you doing this?”

Ianto raised an eyebrow at his friend.

“This!” Tosh said gesturing again to the phone. “You’ve proven more than capable of doing your job and raising a child. When I walked in here you were on the verge of tears. I’ve only ever seen you cry once Ianto. Through all the shit we’ve been though only once, and now this? You expect me to believe you’re not bothered by this at all?”

“Gwen’s put you up to it?” Ianto asked tersely

Tosh shook her head. “No, Ianto. This is me wanting what’s best for you”

“But what’s best for me isn’t best for everyone, Tosh. She’s a lovely child and I won’t deny loving her but we’re Torchwood. Family’s don’t happen in Torchwood.” Ianto spoke into his cup not daring to make eye contact.

Tosh stood scoot the chair back loudly. “Ianto Jones you’re being a coward and that’s saying something since you’ve risked your life for me more times than I can count. You held my hand after Mary even though you’d just suffered a far greater loss and you told me we should grab hold of our chances of happiness with both hands. Now you won’t even try?”

Ianto looked up at his normally quiet friend’s outburst. “I want to Tosh,” he paused rather shocked when he admitted this out loud for the first time, “but when I die, and more likely than not I will die young, what will become of her?”

Tosh smiled sadly. “I figured one of the benefits of having an immortal boyfriend is that he’s well… rather immortal.” With that she gathered her mug and walked out of the office.

Ianto got through the rest of the day on autopilot. He alternated between berating himself for letting the others’ words affect him and trying to keep his mind blank.

It wasn’t surprising that it was Tosh’s words that got to him. She was, after Jack, Ianto’s best friend in the hub and seemed to know him _better_ than Jack at times. What surprised him was how passionate she had been. Gwen was the one known for her passionate speeches where she spoke from her heart but not always her brain. Tosh was known for facts and logical reasoning. That’s not to say she wasn’t human and didn’t have emotion but she protected herself from hurt with binary and wire the way Ianto did with coffee and sarcasm.

He ended up leaving shortly after Owen, leaving Tosh at her station tinkering around her computer. He spared her one last glance before hurrying to the car park. The car seat still soundly strapped into his back seat was like a tiny knife to the gut and briefly he considered chucking it in the bin. He didn’t though for some reason.

His phone rang as he was parking, and this time he did spare a glance at the ID, it was Jack of course.

“Jack,” he breathed, not bothering with any formality at this time in the evening.

There was a pause. “Ianto are you alright?”

Ianto sighed and turned off the car. “I’m fine.”

“Uh huh” Jack’s tone conveyed that he was well aware Ianto wasn’t fine.

“I selected a few CVs for you for a weapon’s expert.” Ianto said by way of changing the subject.

“That’s good.” Jack agreed and there was the clinking of crystal in the background.

“A night cap?” Ianto asked as he opened the door to his building.

Jack chuckled, “awfully perceptive of you.”

“I can hear the glasses, Jack.” Ianto said matter-of-factly.

Jack made a sound of agreement but it was amplified in the way that let Ianto know he was taking a drink.

As Ianto opened the door to his flat he was hit by a sense of wrongness. Nothing was obviously wrong but it was the niggling sensation in the back of one’s mind when their coffee machine is moved an inch to the left. He surveyed the living room, hand on his weapon, and tried to decide why exactly he was feeling this.

It hit him suddenly, accompanied by the sound track of Toshiko’s accusations from earlier in the day. There was no travel cot set up in the corner, no bin of small toys tucked beneath his coffee table, no tiny jacket hung on the rack nor hideously pink trainers on the mat by the door. Despite the fact that his flat looked exactly as it had one month ago it seemed disturbingly empty. The only other time he’d felt this way was the day after he’d cleared out all of the boxes he’d been holding onto for Lisa.

“Jack,” he said in a rather small voice.

“Ianto?” Jack’s voice sounded alarmed. “Are you okay?”

Ianto cleared his throat, “Jack, what am I doing?”

 “Ianto? What’s wrong?” Jack sounded more concerned.

Ianto opened his mouth to respond, to assure Jack that nothing was actually wrong but no words came out.

“Ianto you have three seconds to make sense or I’m calling Owen.” Jack ordered harshly.

This was enough to snap Ianto out of the wave of panic he was feeling. “Don’t!” He yelped. “Don’t call Owen.” He said in a much softer voice.

“Ianto you’re still worrying me.”

Ianto sighed and sat on the arm of his sofa, coat still on. “Jack, hypothetically speaking if someone at Torchwood was solely responsible for a child what would be the protocols concerning them?” He asked as he began to play with the hem of his coat.

“Well I would be uncomfortable with them being in the field unless it was an apocalypse level situation.” Jack said slowly.

“So you wouldn’t necessarily fire them?”

“Not if they were, say, someone who already had several jobs integral to the running of the Hub.” Ianto could hear Jack’s smile. “Hypothetically of course.”

“Jack, what am I doing?” Ianto repeated.

“Asking me hypothetical question, apparently.”

Ianto sighed and hung his head. “Right, yes. Hypothetically speaking, would one be insane for considering it.”

“You’re asking me if it would be insane for someone to consider having a child?” Jack asked with an amused tone.

“Well when you put it that way…” Ianto agreed.

“Everyone’s insane for having children. What is that quote again?” Jack asked and paused making a thoughtful hum. “‘Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.’ Which is to say a child is both the threat of the worst sort of heart ache but the promise of the best sort of happiness.”

“Did you always spout sage advice or did that come with immortality?” Ianto asked only half joking.

“Not sage advice… experience.” Jack disputed sadly.

“You’ll have to tell me about them sometime,” Ianto said quietly.

Jack chuckled fondly. “Sometime I will but right now isn’t about me, you were asking me some very interesting hypothetical questions.”

“If I hypothetically asked you to bring Tegan back, how much hypothetical headache will it cause?”

“Not much for me. All I have to do is wrestle her things back on board a plane. I’ll lose a field agent but hypothetically I’m not sure I’ll be too upset over that, especially since I’m apparently hiring a new weapon’s expert.” Jack answered.

“Jack.”

“Ianto.” Jack said in an amused voice.

“Jack, bring her back please.” Ianto

“Hypothetically?” Jack teased.

“No, actually.” Ianto said shaking his head though Jack couldn’t see him.

Jack let out a rather loud whoop. “I knew it.”

Ianto chuckled and finally began taking his jacket off. “You knew I was going to do this?”

“I had strongly hoped you would.” Jack admitted ruefully. “We can be home by tomorrow afternoon if that’s alright by you?”

“It’s more than alright. Let me know your flight information tomorrow and I’ll pick you two up.” Ianto said before adding, “oh and Jack?”

“Hmm?” Jack hummed and it echoed like he was drinking again.

“Remind me tomorrow, and possibly next week that this seemed like a good idea.”

“I won’t let you forget it,” Jack said playfully. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow Ianto, enjoy your rest tonight.”

“Good night Jack.” Ianto rung off with Jack and looked around his flat feeling less panicked at the idea of having a child than maybe he should have been.


	9. Let's Start from Here

Ianto hadn’t actually told the rest of the team about his change of mind, not ready to quiet deal with their reactions. Instead he had simply told them Jack was returning for Germany because he had concluded his business earlier than anticipated. He’d almost felt guilty not telling them right away when Tosh smiled sadly at him but didn’t say a word.

He arrived before the plane and once again took advantage of Torchwood’s perks by driving onto the tarmac. As the plane touched down he exited the car and attempted to look casual by leaning against the hood with his arms crossed over his chest. His feigned nonchalance was quickly forgotten when Jack stepped off the plane, RAF coat billowing behind him as he took the stairs. Tegan was in his arms sporting what appeared to be a brand new bright red woolen pea coat. Ianto couldn’t help but wonder what other new things would be returning with her.

“Ianto,” Jack called out with his trademark grin as he spotted Ianto.

“Sir.” Ianto returned with a nod trying to control the wide grin that threatened to spread across his features.

“I seem to have a rather lively package for you,” Jack grinned.

“I’m not sure if you’re referring to yourself or Tegan.” Ianto deadpanned.

“Well I _was_ referring to Miss Tegan but I now that you mention it that package _is_ for you.” Jack leered.

Ianto rolled his eyes heavily at Jack and plucked Tegan from his arms. “Welcome back, cariad.” He whispered into her hair. When he looked up Jack was eyeing him with an odd expression.

“So I was thinking,” Jack started as Ianto began fastening Tegan into her seat. “What exactly are you going to call her?”

Ianto looked over his shoulder and raised a brow. “Tegan… being as it’s her name.”

Jack chuckled and climbed into the car. “Yes, but you can change it when you and Tosh create her birth certificate.”

Ianto looked thoughtful as he shut Tegan’s door and walked around getting in. “No, it’s her name. Her parents, whenever they are, gave it to her and I feel like I owe it to them to keep that for her.”

Jack was starting the car and he tilted his head to look at Ianto. “You’re something else, you know that?”

Tegan passed out almost as soon as the engine started and Ianto almost felt bad waking her when they reached the hub. He had warned Jack about his small omission when he had explained his early departure to the rest of the team. Jack had laughed loudly, somehow not waking Tegan even in the small space, and told him that it was his funeral.

The second they had stepped into the hub there had been an explosion of sound, mostly from the two women. Gwen had looked up when the alarm sounded and as soon as she’d seen Tegan she let out a rather loud squeal and darted up out of her chair towards them. Tosh, having hear the exclamation had turned in her seat and a silly grin plastered itself to her face. “Ianto!” She exclaimed hurrying from station to them.

They were talking over one another so quickly Ianto wasn’t actually able to make out much of what they were saying. Tegan looked confused and Jack looked highly entertained with the situation. Eventually Owen crawled out from where ever he had been, he didn’t say anything merely casting a glance and Tegan and then looking to Ianto. Jack raised his hand to indicate to them to quiet and both of their chatting died off quickly.

“So after some good natured meddling,” Ianto said and made a pointed glance at Gwen, “and perhaps a lack of truly thorough thinking I’ve decided perhaps it’s best if Tegan remain with me.”

“Oh Ianto I’m so proud of you.” Tosh exclaimed and pulled him into a large hug that was uncharacteristic of both of them.

When she finally released him Gwen took her spot. “You’ll thank me for my meddling,” she said into his ear.

“Yeah, you best not think I’ll be hugging you,” Owen groused from his corner of the hub but he smiled at Ianto. Ianto nodded in thanks.

Eventually the other backed up and Ianto was able to talk Tosh in to helping him forge yet another set of documents for Tegan. He’d decided on a story he could live with on the ride from the airport. He wanted the whole thing set up as an adoption that became official only a month ago. If anyone followed her paper trail (and anything was possible when you were the daughter of an alien hunting organization) it would lead them to a young mother who had given her up at birth but through some misfortune Tegan had lingered in the foster system for two years. He had decided to give her Lisa’s birthday, January 12th, as a small memorial to the woman he’d loved and who he knew would have wanted him to do the right thing.

Tosh printed up the documents and Ianto smiled at how real they were. He’d call for another copies in a few months to get actual government issued ones but until all of Tegan’s details settled into the system these would have to do. He was looking them over as he turned to take them to Jack’s office. Pausing, he turned back to his friend. “Tosh, can you do me one last favor.”

When Ianto finally made it to Jack’s office Tegan was nowhere to be found though Jack was seated at his desk. Ianto raised a brow at the other man in question. Jack made a shushing gesture and pointed to the hatch of his bunker which sat open. Ianto nodded and handed Jack some of the paperwork he held.

Jack did an immediate double take on the birth certificate which lay on top. “That’s… a lovely name, Ianto,” his was soft and full of emotion.

Ianto knew what Jack had seen and smiled that the older man approved. “Tegan Rose Caron Jones. Bit of a mouthful but I wanted for at least most of the monogram on her blanket to stand.”

Jack smiled brilliantly but as he read down the document a frown touched his features. “She doesn’t have a secondary parent listed.”

“She doesn’t,” Ianto nodded in agreement.

“I just thought,” Jack started before shrugging and trying to look casual, “I had thought since the Adoption and Children act had made it legal that you’d put me down as her second parent.”

“Jack I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Ianto said truthfully.

“No, you didn’t ask I was offering but I understand if that’s not something your interested in.” Jack said again with poorly feigned indifference.

“Well I couldn’t ask you to do that but I had hoped you would offer,” Ianto said with a large grin and passed over a second birth certificate to Jack he’d made with a large amount of hope on his part.

Jack’s smile was brilliant and seemed to light up every corner of the room. “Much better.”

Ianto laughed before sticking his head out of the office. “Tosh,” he called and she looked up expectantly at him from her computer, “we’ll be using option two.”

“Tegan Rose Caron Harkness-Jones, now that name might be even longer than she is,” Jack teased as he read from the certificate.

Ianto nodded. “It’s certainly a large name but I have a feeling she’ll grow into it.” He leaned over the desk and rested his forehead against Jack’s.

“I’m positive she will.” Jack agreed and closed the gap between their lips in a searing kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this! I apologize for any and all mistakes!
> 
> I've been considering turning this into a bit of an AU where I redo the events of the season (and COE) and how the new additions would affect the outcomes.


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